Two more field sites down.
At a large pond in North London I caught several amphibians. Unfortunately all bar four were the wrong kind! Yep, after a solid 90 minutes of hunting I had 4 frogs, 10 smooth newts and a lonely male toad. The frogs were two very mismatched pairs, tiny males who were barely able to get their little arms around large females.
A school behind the premises has build a larger pond within about 50 meters of the current pond, which might explain why the numbers are low.
I then visited a tiny pond in Mitcham, South London. It is fair to say that I was back to my frog catching best. I managed to catch and sample 60 frogs before it got too dark to continue. Out of a pond that is probably 3 feet long by two feet in breadth, that seems like a ridiculously large number.
It appears the frogs are yet to make it to the rest of my field sites, so I may get a few days break from fieldwork to return to Cornwall and get on with other things, which will be nice. As much as I am enjoying spending time outside with the amphibians, the constant driving certainly does take it out of you. I could do with a few stationary days to replenish my energy stores!
As always I've included some photos from the last few days!
Until next time!
At a large pond in North London I caught several amphibians. Unfortunately all bar four were the wrong kind! Yep, after a solid 90 minutes of hunting I had 4 frogs, 10 smooth newts and a lonely male toad. The frogs were two very mismatched pairs, tiny males who were barely able to get their little arms around large females.
A school behind the premises has build a larger pond within about 50 meters of the current pond, which might explain why the numbers are low.
I then visited a tiny pond in Mitcham, South London. It is fair to say that I was back to my frog catching best. I managed to catch and sample 60 frogs before it got too dark to continue. Out of a pond that is probably 3 feet long by two feet in breadth, that seems like a ridiculously large number.
It appears the frogs are yet to make it to the rest of my field sites, so I may get a few days break from fieldwork to return to Cornwall and get on with other things, which will be nice. As much as I am enjoying spending time outside with the amphibians, the constant driving certainly does take it out of you. I could do with a few stationary days to replenish my energy stores!
As always I've included some photos from the last few days!
Until next time!