Toad and Friends: This Week in Our Wild Garden

 

We looked out the window yesterday morning at about 10.30 ... and were greeted with the sight of this rather magnificent toad. This is the second time we have seen the toad on our patio this summer. 

 

I have decided to post the extremely poor record shot above as much as a note to myself as anything. 

The point is that I saw the Migrant hawker in the lower half of this image, and took a quick photo, little realising that there was actually a second dragonfly above (see black arrow). Result: the top dragonfly has been cut in two unnecessarily. It was only a record shot (a quick first image in case the creature flew away), and as such the quality doesn't worry me too much; but what concerns me is the fact that even after this photograph had been taken, I still failed to notice the second insect. I have been thinking about William Blake and his famous, albeit metaphorical, line about seeing a universe in a sand particle; well, it seems I need to sharpen up my powers of observation and concentration considerably.

Below: this is a better image of the top dragon (which in mind at the time was the lower and only one, so presumably by this time the lower one had flown), showing off the distinctive yellow golf-tee marking on S2, just below the wings:

 

 

The photo below shows one of our two Wasp spiders. You can see a white food parcel near the top and what will become a second once the spider has completed her task. I'm wondering if she has wrapped up a small bee.

And finally for now, my first garden sighting of a tiny 22-spot ladybird. The sun was in completely the wrong place and the insect was only about 3mm in length, but at least I was able to identify it from the poor-quality photo. 

There have not been many butterflies about this week in the garden; perhaps it has been too windy. Even so, we have logged Peacock, Red Admiral, Large and Small White, Gatekeeper, Meadow Brown, Comma and Holly Blue. I wonder what the weekend will bring. I am still hoping to see my first Painted Lady of the season.

 

Frog!

 

We have two mini-ponds in our garden at present, situated in partial shade under some large ivy leaves. Some weeks ago we stocked these tiny watering holes with oxygenating plants and pondweed in the hope that a frog might take up residence.

I walked over to the pond this morning, and I am still not sure who was more surprised to see who, for there in the middle (at that point) were two magnificent amphibian eyes looking up at me. 

The frog was still there eight hours later, so I am hoping there may be more sightings tomorrow.

 

* * *

Previous post: click here to take a look at my review of Susan Richardson's magnificent wildlife book, Where the Seals Sing. 

 

Northern Holiday, 2017 (3): Aberlady Bay Nature Reserve

We returned a number of times to this beautiful corner, often in the evening when the call of the Curlew over the water and mudflats was utterly unforgettable. The photo below shows the approach to the reserve, and while there were no trolls in sight, it did make me think of the Three Billy Goats Gruff and their rickety-rackety bridge!

I particularly liked the bird-print sign on the green slat in the photo below.

And here we are: no prizes for guessing who was the tortoise...

It was lovely to see a few orchids beside the path...

... and one or two butterflies, like this Ringlet.

The photo below shows the bends in the bridge, but fails to give a good indication of its length.

There were some beautiful wildflowers, including Viper's Bugloss.

We had been given a tip-off by other visitors that there were tiny froglets about. We looked and looked along the damp paths, and were just about to give up when the large frog in the photos at the end of this post did a sudden leap in front of me, making me do a proverbial 'jump' out of my skin. After that lively introduction to the amphibian underworld of Aberlady, we got our eye in and found plenty of minute black and/or olive coloured froglets. There were so many, in fact, that we had to tread with the utmost care.

Aberlady became the first 'local nature reserve' back in 1952. It is beautiful by day and by night, with its ever-changing cloudscape, as you can see.

Seasonal First: Frogspawn in Sudbury

I have been keeping a sharp eye out for my first frogspawn of 2017, and was finally rewarded yesterday afternoon on the meadows bordering the River Stour in Sudbury. The clump had gathered a fair amount of plant material, but despite the bits of weed and reed, the embryo tadpoles were clearly visible. 

I have logged the sighting here (#SpawnSurvey). 

This part of the town was looking particularly lovely with Mallards in the water, a Willow coming into leaf and plenty of Daffodils on the bank.

• I had a hunch I was a bit late this year. This link will take you to spawn I saw in Felixstowe in 2014, much earlier in March...

Holiday 2: Amphibian Encounters around the Solway (north and south of the Scottish border)

Seen at NT Sutton Hoo last weekend

I know a good place for tadpoles here in Suffolk, but we do not often see frogs or toads in our local patch. Last weekend was an exception when we saw this little fellow, in the two photos above, poking out of what I presume was a drinking bowl for sheep at NT Sutton Hoo. The warty skin suggests a toad to me, but I may check by posting a photo on iSpot, particularly since the upper abdomen (probably the chest cavity) seems swollen.

On our recent holiday to the Solway estuary, we saw more toadlets and froglets in one hour than I have ever seen in my life (though we saw good numbers of toads crossing the road last year near Kilmartin).

This time the creatures were so tiny that we had to be incredibly careful not to step on them. It was a moving and fascinating experience, and one that poet Neil Rollinson wrote about during his residency with the Wordsworth Trust. The sad part (and having watched BBC Springwatch and Unsprung 2016, I use the 'sad' word with some trepidation!) is that far from all will reach maturity. I hope, however, that a good number will survive to boost the population in the lovely Eskrigg Nature Reserve near Lockerbie.

You can see in the three photos that follow that most were comparable to a short pine needle (or perhaps a 20p piece or needle from a yew tree) in body length.

Taken at Eskrigg

Taken at Eskrigg

Taken at Eskrigg

The next couple of photos show something of the landscape in the reserve - the pine forest with its moss and hummocky mounds ...

 ... and the watery areas.

The only adult frog (a Common Frog, I believe) that we saw during our first week away, while we were south of the Solway, was this one below, who was strolling across a rough track at night in the vicinity of the River Cocker. David got out of the car to take the photograph for me. The light lateral fold is clearly visible, and the striped barring on the hind legs is well defined.

Frog near the River Cocker, Cumbria on a wet night in late June 2016

On one of our expeditions, we found ourselves on the Furness peninsula. We had been told that there was a good place in the care of the National Trust for a waterside picnic; and although we actually moved on up the coast to eat, we were thrilled to discover a Natterjack Toad pool at our first port of call. Male Natterjack toads can sometimes be heard calling to the females on balmy summer evenings. It must be a special sound. It is terrific that the National Trust is working to conserve the Natterjack, which has a distinctive yellow stripe along its back.

The photo below shows the pool - and you can see that it is fenced off to give added protection to the spawn, tadpoles, toadlets and adult Natterjacks. There are only 60 known sites in the UK inhabited by these toads, which are protected by law in all stages of their development, and consequently should not be disturbed. Full marks to the National Trust and other bodies for protecting the Cumbrian population of these special amphibians. 

2015 Scottish Odyssey (4) Toad in the Road

© David Gill (who got out of the car to take the photo and to ensure that the toad was safe!)

I couldn't resist posting this photo of a Common Toad! Isn't it a magnificent creature?

We saw the toad, along with a number of others, in the Kilmartin area, not far from Lochgilphead. It was a wet night. I love the contrasting and complementary speckles of the toad and the road!

Amphibian Alert ~ Frogs Galore

N.B. My 'Tree Following 2014' post is HERE. The Loose and Leafy page about the project is HERE.

After a tip-off from the Landguard Bird Observatory, we went in search of frogs. I failed to see an amphibian at all last year, but this sighting more than made up for that fact.

This marshy area was apparently part of Horse Shoe Creek up until 1867 when it was brought into use by HM War Department for rifle practice. The pond was dug in 1993 and is now a haven for wildlife.

We counted 73 Common Frogs, and there were probably more in among the spawn and the weed. Leeches, Hemiclepsis marginata, were noted in the pond back in 2011. 

Frogs tend to emerge from hibernation in late February. The females spawn almost immediately. 

There are frequently 300-400 eggs in a clump! 

Spawn was noted here from 29 March in 2013, so our milder winter has brought things forward. 

The pond is part of a Nature Reserve, designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest due to the rarity of vegetated shingle habitat nearby. 

I was fascinated by the lighter colour of the frog on the left. The sunlight was low and it was hard to get a crisp photo. Females tend to be a lighter colour than than the males, though frogs have a certain ability to change the tone of their skin to match the light or shade of their environment. Common Frogs come in a surprising range of shades, stripes and speckles.

Common frogs can live up to eight years.

Females tend to be larger than their mates.

Female frogs begin producing spawn once they reach their third year. 

The photo above shows the wide windswept beach at Felixstowe's Landguard Point.

 And finally ... a photo showing conservation work in action, protecting the habitat of the rare Stinking Goosefoot.