Apologies for the delay. This time last year the frogs seemed to arrive in a trickle, yet this year has been a veritable amphibian flood.
The last week or so has seen me traversing up and down the south of England on the hunt for frogs, and on the whole I've been very, very successful.
My second field visit of the season was to Southampton. The conditions were great for frogs, but terrible for finding them. I managed a rather paltry 8 adult males.
Next up was Poole in Dorset, the weather was again slightly damp but two very well managed ponds produced an incredible amount of frogs, both breeding pairs and solo adult males. I managed to get measurements from an amazing 40 frogs before bad light and the long drive back to Cornwall stopped play!
After a two stage journey, I ended up in Ealing, West London. I could recall from previous from visits to this site that the two ponds here were quite small. I wasn't expecting to find great numbers of frogs, and had arranged to visit another site that afternoon. I soon learned the error of my ways however, after a slow start I ended up with 50 frogs in my box.
I finally made it to my fourth field site two days later. The numbers of frogs in the North London garden pond were nothing short of staggering. I collected frogs until I was reasonably sure I had as many as were likely to be there, a grand total of 60 animals!! However as soon as I turned my attention to sampling, many more began to resurface. An accurate head count was impossible, however if the total population was far short of 150 animals I would be very surprised.
Finally, I visited a site in Chessington, a small pond but it still turned out 18 animals, 16 males and 2 females, no pairs this time though. I did however encounter the biggest frogs I've found so far during my research.
On the ground it really seems like this year might be a huge one for frogs. Seeing as most of the sites sampled so far have experienced Ranavirus infection, it is great to see that the frog populations seem to be really healthy!
Summary so far:
201 frogs sampled.
More miles travelled than I care to think about.
More packet sandwiches consumed than I care to admit.
Time allowing I will update after my next visit, for now though I've attached some media from my adventures so far.
Use the link below to follow me on twitter for bite size updates.
The last week or so has seen me traversing up and down the south of England on the hunt for frogs, and on the whole I've been very, very successful.
My second field visit of the season was to Southampton. The conditions were great for frogs, but terrible for finding them. I managed a rather paltry 8 adult males.
Next up was Poole in Dorset, the weather was again slightly damp but two very well managed ponds produced an incredible amount of frogs, both breeding pairs and solo adult males. I managed to get measurements from an amazing 40 frogs before bad light and the long drive back to Cornwall stopped play!
After a two stage journey, I ended up in Ealing, West London. I could recall from previous from visits to this site that the two ponds here were quite small. I wasn't expecting to find great numbers of frogs, and had arranged to visit another site that afternoon. I soon learned the error of my ways however, after a slow start I ended up with 50 frogs in my box.
I finally made it to my fourth field site two days later. The numbers of frogs in the North London garden pond were nothing short of staggering. I collected frogs until I was reasonably sure I had as many as were likely to be there, a grand total of 60 animals!! However as soon as I turned my attention to sampling, many more began to resurface. An accurate head count was impossible, however if the total population was far short of 150 animals I would be very surprised.
Finally, I visited a site in Chessington, a small pond but it still turned out 18 animals, 16 males and 2 females, no pairs this time though. I did however encounter the biggest frogs I've found so far during my research.
On the ground it really seems like this year might be a huge one for frogs. Seeing as most of the sites sampled so far have experienced Ranavirus infection, it is great to see that the frog populations seem to be really healthy!
Summary so far:
201 frogs sampled.
More miles travelled than I care to think about.
More packet sandwiches consumed than I care to admit.
Time allowing I will update after my next visit, for now though I've attached some media from my adventures so far.
Use the link below to follow me on twitter for bite size updates.
The video above shows yet another pair arrive at the pond in Palmer's Green as I was sampling!
The photos below show some of the diversity I've encountered in the frogs so far.
The photos below show some of the diversity I've encountered in the frogs so far.