A Tale of Marsh Frogs (at London Wetland Centre)

Apart from watching an amazing display of hunting and swooping by the Hobby last weekend, we were also entertained by some Marsh Frogs .......

here is their story.

It was a wonderfully warm and sunny early May day. Spring had sprung gloriously and this had not gone unnoticed by our hero, Percy Persistent and, not so much by our heroine, Fenella Feisty.

The noise in the pond made by the Marsh frogs generally, announced that something was afoot!

Percy and Fenella met and looked into each other's eyes.

Percy decided that the making of tadpoles was the right thing for this time of year and embarked on the appropriate action to ensure continuity of the frog race.

However, Fenella was not sure about this and decided to take evasive action and move away....

Whilst Percy decided "she didn't mean this", Fenella demonstrated that "she did mean this" by flipping backwards the tipping Percy into the water!

Undeterred by this rejection, Percy came back..

However, when he leapt out of the water to "make contact" with Fenella, it became apparent that his sense of direction was somewhat amiss as.... he missed!

"OK" thought he, "I will try a little cajoling to see where that gets me"

Well - so far so good for Percy Persistent.

We can even turn around and face the other way..

and we can gaze into each others eyes...

"This looks promising" thought Percy

"Got to treat the ladies with decorum" stated Percy

"I think I'm in love" sighed Percy

"Forget that" Fenella thought as she flipped backwards, shooting poor Percy back into the pond while she herself, ended up on her back with the effort of shooing off her would-be suitor.

"Glug, glug"

After recovering from the frenzy of the last few minutes, Percy living up to the Persistent in his name, decided it was still worth another try!

But, despite his very gentle approach, the lady said no - again!! (whilst muttering, through clenched teeth... "which part of the word no, do you not understand"? and, again threw him to one side.

and finally, our Hero Percy, who was persistence personified, had to finally admit defeat as Fenella had , yet again, made it abundantly clear that this "was not the right time".

The decided to part, without injury (except perhaps to Percy's pride) and swam away in opposite directions with Percy looking somewhat despondent and Fenella?... was that a triumphant look in her eye?

Thank you Percy and Fenella for giving us such entertainment.

At the end of which time, quite a large crowd of the human kind had gathered to watch and laugh at their antics. :D We'd been entertained for about 20 minutes by the loving couple.

Oh I do love Spring :D

Barnes - it was the Easter hols......

I popped over to London Wetland Centre on Tuesday just to see what was about. Not a lot! Unless you count several "young people" on Easter holidays.... !

A grey heron managed to look down in the dumps. The weather was changing for the worse and his pose seemed to reflect that.

Watching two Great Crested Grebes I noticed that one of them, on a couple of occasions, stood up in the shallow water and, to all intents and purposes, seemed to be gazing into the water. Never seen this before.

A female Mallard had a preen.

And heard my first Reed Warbler deep in the reeds. It was not far from the nest which posed a question for me.. was it this or last year's nest? It look in far too pristine a condition to have survived the winter, but surely the warblers couldn't have been here long enough to build (what looks to be) a complete nest?

Marsh Frogs announced their presence very vocally.

And this one seems to be grimacing.. not sure if it had suffered some damage to its "lip" line.

And in the early (ish) morning sun, a common lizard was sunning itself before starting its activites of the day.

Just a quick visit and heard so many Cetti's and Blackcaps that it was frustrating not to gain a glimpse of them. Saw my first Speckled Wood - in fact two of them..

Hopefully more another visit.

Frogs and a spider!

Well... I'm sorry to say it's grey and wet again!!! And it's the weekend....

Yesterday, I was watching the frogs being very active in the pond, whilst standing at the kitchen sink (I do do this occasionally ;) ), when much to my amazement a Grey Heron landed beside the pond... as I moved it flew off.. I don't know who was more surprised!

This morning the frogs were again very busy and, indeed, being very vocal too and much more spawn had been produced. I took a picture but the light was dreadful.

Despite the rain I headed over to Barnes (London Wetland Centre). It might be great for waterfowl, but the lack of light and enormous amounts of wet stuff don't do much for visitors.

So very much "water off a duck's back" today...

On the way out, Terry (many thanks for the head up :D ), pointed out this "Funnel Spider" making its home in a corner under the outside stairs... wonderful to see it! I'm not quite sure whether it's one of "ours" or not.. so if anyone knows anything about them I'd be delighted to be educated!

There was a break in the clouds by the time I got home and the frogs were still churning up the mud and water in the pond. Just a pity they wouldn't face the way I needed them to to have their picture taken...

This, taken through the water, was a bit of a challenge photographically!

I wonder what tomorrow morning will bring?

Spring - the clues..

I listened this morning to the birds singing their socks off - it's a wonderful musical entertainment. The visiting male Blackcap joined in - such a pretty song. The Great Spotted Woodpecker that's been drumming in the same spot in the same oak tree was drumming yet again.

And then this evening the Robin and Blackbird were competing for the "top of the pops" spot as daylight gave way to evening twilight!

Another warm day with some sunshine and a bright, but not necessarily blue sky. I didn't have a whole day free so this morning I trotted off to Bushy. All the clues that Spring is now well and truly here were evident as I walked...

The Crocuses shone brilliantly..

Camelias glowed sedately..

Mahonias showed flowers, scentedly ....

Bees buzzed contentedly

The Spring bubbled tinklingly

while the squirrel paused shyly

frogs spawned enthusiastically..

and a Red Admiral shone wonderfully

(my first flutter of the season - woo hoo)

Parakeets cuddled procreatively...

Blue tits peered about hopefully..

and some look for insects hungrily

Nuthatches dashed about speedily

I headed off - contentedly....

A tale of some frogs....

Are frogs creatures of habit? I've had a pond in the garden since May of 2006. Obviously that year it was too late for any frogs to have spawned. The following years were successful and the first spawn was produced on 20 February 2007, and the same date 25 February 2008 and 25 February 2009.

And looking back at that post for 2009 the weather was far different on that day than it is today!

I've been out creeping around the pond with torch in hand, during the course of the last few evenings, (and so far no-one's appeared to take me away) peering for activity. Certainly for the last couple of nights there have been frogs in the pond. And, again, tonight (Wednesday 24th) there were 5 frogs and on this occasion there was an obvious pair.

So, I was very keen to see what was going to greet me on the morning of 25 February 2010! And???? Well a couple of frogs startled by my presence dived down to the depths and that was it! No spawn today....

I'm not going to be able to watch over the next couple of mornings but I hope to find some before too long.

And last Saturday the sun shone and the light was excellent. Pity there weren't many birds about at Barnes though... but these showed well

I think this is a Common Gull (the aerial bird that is)..

This starling was singing for joy in the sunshine..

and a Cormorant treated us to a fly pass!

Blue Tit.

and a Lapwing... the sunshine really does bring out their colours.