Frog Spawn

mr.wiggle

Its that time of year once again:)
Havent heard the randy gits at it this year but have
been left loadsa frog spawn in every pool of water in my garden.
Not sure if its as good as last year, as lots of places that usually have
it are empty so far.
( North cork btw )

Eddie B

Noticed the very same thing! Pools of water full of spawn, but these pools aren't permanent, and are drying up fast! I see no spawn at all in the usual good locations of permanent pools!

mr.wiggle

I had to get an old fish tank out last week and rescue several loads of spawn from temporary pools which have completely dried out this week.
I'm gonna wait till the little blighters hatch/develop and place them in several
permenant bodies of water that usually have them.
And I know...I'm a law breaker, but a a softie rather than a hardened one !:)

fits

Its this stuff that really makes me miss home.

Birdnuts

I've seen some spawn today in these parts. How hardy is it in terms of frost and ice?? cos the night temps are going to be sub-zero for most of this week

mr.wiggle

If they go white they will die, but the majority should survive once the ice isn't persistent. What worries me is its been so dry this week, ( usually a great thing ), that even my natural pond had dried out leading me to add water to it with a hose pipe ( well water )., as the spawn was hi and dry.:(

wildlifeboy

i reckon after the rain coming on wedneday there will be tonnes more

mr.wiggle

What bird eats frog spawn? My boy found some of it ontop of a gate pillar today.

dodderangler

mr.wiggle wrote: »

What bird eats frog spawn? My boy found some of it ontop of a gate pillar today.

Everything really
All manor of corvids will take frog spawn
I took a walk up to the hell fire yesterday starting off on land I hunt and as I was walking up I spotted 3 herons (2 flying and one in a tree) a good bit up hill
I've hunted this lad for years and never seen them before that high up so I walked on to see why and there was a pool of water which had filled from the river coming from the mountains and it was almost vibrating with the amount of frogspawn and frogs which were producing is
Good to see as this little overflow of a pond doesn't look like it ever drains so frog spawn looks like it'll survive and not dry out though with the herons about it may take a good hit

OpenYourEyes

It also happens that herons, corvids and buzzards will predate on frogs that are full of spawn, so will catch a frog and take it up to a tree branch or on top of a post and rip it up to eat. When they do this they remove the internal organs carrying the eggs/spawn(just tiny black dots that are barely visible at this stage), which get left on trees/posts etc, and when it rains the spawn soaks up the water resulting in loads of frog spawn visible in unusual places!

mr.wiggle

wildlifeboy wrote: »

i reckon after the rain coming on wedneday there will be tonnes more

On the button with this...frogs and spawn all over the place this week...:)

Duzzie

We found a fat female in our garden yesterday. She looked like a common European frog. We live next to a large wood so can only assume she came from there. There is no way she'd survive in the garden with our 2 dogs so we relocated her back to the woods. This morning we found a small clump of spawn, maybe 100 or so eggs in a tiny puddle in a foot depression. There is no way the eggs or tadpoles will survive in there. I know the let nature take it's course but i dont want to leave them as they are. What to do, what to do???

I have a cycled empty fish tank so might have to do the illegal thing and at least give them a fighting chance.

We have never had them in our garden before but can only assume that the recent dry spell has forced them to look further afield for spawning sites.

OpenYourEyes

Duzzie wrote: »

We found a fat female in our garden yesterday. She looked like a common European frog. We live next to a large wood so can only assume she came from there. There is no way she'd survive in the garden with our 2 dogs so we relocated her back to the woods. This morning we found a small clump of spawn, maybe 100 or so eggs in a tiny puddle in a foot depression. There is no way the eggs or tadpoles will survive in there. I know the let nature take it's course but i dont want to leave them as they are. What to do, what to do???

I have a cycled empty fish tank so might have to do the illegal thing and at least give them a fighting chance.

We have never had them in our garden before but can only assume that the recent dry spell has forced them to look further afield for spawning sites.

You probably should let nature take its course tbh.
Otherwise, a pond/river/lake would be much better than a fish tank

RossPaws

Hey, I've been lurking around here for a while and just wanted to ask a question about the frogspawn (if I should start my own thread just let me know, but I thought it would probably fit here!)

Last year I found a load of frogspawn in our pond in the garden. Being in Finglas, I thought that was weird because our garden is all walled in and there's a main road right outside, so how did the frog even get in? But all the same, there it was in all its glory floating at the surface.

We've got about 19 large koi in the pond and they were having the time of their lives feasting on it, so I sort of gambled and used a fishnet to take it out and put it in one of the smaller molded ponds that have no fish in them. I figured they'd at least have a chance in there to hatch, rather than the koi eating all the eggs.

Well hatch they did! In a few weeks we had loads of little tadpoles swimming around, and a while after most of them became mini frogs and I rarely saw them after that. But the thing is, about a quarter of what survived are still tadpoles.

That was in July last year, and they're STILL tadpoles. Is that normal? To take almost a year to develop from tadpole to frog? Most of their siblings already graduated into the school of legs after a few weeks from hatching. I'd really appreciate any possible reason for that from ye who are more educated in the field than I!

Aside from that issue, I saw tonnes of the stuff at Glendalough recently. Literally loads of it, as far as the eye could see across the swampy area behind the deck that you walk.

Alun

Yes, some tadpoles overwinter as tadpoles, and by doing so steal a march on next year's frogs by maturing, and also mating, earlier than them. I have no idea what triggers some to mature 'normally' and others to overwinter, but I suppose there's some evolutionary advantage to them doing it.

http://www.froglife.org/advice/FAQs/spawn_tadpoles/late.htm

RossPaws

Yes, some tadpoles overwinter as tadpoles, and by doing so steal a march on next year's frogs by maturing, and also mating, earlier than them. I have no idea what triggers some to mature 'normally' and others to overwinter, but I suppose there's some evolutionary advantage to them doing it.

http://www.froglife.org/advice/FAQs/...poles/late.htm

All the times I googled it I never got a proper answer like that. Thanks! Must keep an eye and see how they're getting on now that I understand the delay!

Hondo75

Seen a Heron with a frog in its mouth last week ..amazing.

dodderangler

Hondo75 wrote: »

Seen a Heron with a frog in its mouth last week ..amazing.

Seen a frog with a heron in its mouth
Even more amazing

mr.wiggle

The weather the last few weeks has been cataclysmic for the frogs spawning around me. The early spawn, start of feb, did not survive when the dry period hit in the middle of feb due to pools drying up, then freezing on top of that. Then it rained again for a few days, whereby there was a burst of activity with spawn in every depression that held a few inches of water. Then it froze again this week . I have checked out all the usual spots and it looks like no batch has survived.:(
i hope its better news in other parts of the country?

dodderangler

mr.wiggle wrote: »

The weather the last few weeks has been cataclysmic for the frogs spawning around me. The early spawn, start of feb, did not survive when the dry period hit in the middle of feb due to pools drying up, then freezing on top of that. Then it rained again for a few days, whereby there was a burst of activity with spawn in every depression that held a few inches of water. Then it froze again this week . I have checked out all the usual spots and it looks like no batch has survived.:(
i hope its better news in other parts of the country?

Il keep you updated on frog spawn I walk past regularly in a small pond in mountains
The spawn is about 4 foot thick going right around the edges of the pond
Pond is about 20 foot long and 16 wide I reckon
Will take a pic when I see it on Saturday
The frogs are still in or around the pond aswell

trebor28

Saw my first tadpoles of the season this morning

spookwoman

Saw some frogspawn in waterford nature park yesterday