And the first Frog of the year award goes to Annie, one of our residential volunteers, who saw a Frog hopping along the path by the Watchpoint gates yesterday. I always feel sad for the overly keen Frogs during the winter. And by overly keen, I mean desperate to mate.
I found this rather cheeky Frog while looking for Newts.
Male Frogs adopt one of two strategies in order to beat the competition and get a female as early as possible in spring. Most of them just wake up as early as they can and try to get to the water first. But the others play a high risk game of sit and wait. It’s high risk as it involves hibernating in the bottom of the pond, ensuring they are always there first when the females arrive. This strategy is fine if the weather isn’t too cold for too long. But if it freezes for prolonged periods, then the poor sleeping Frogs run out of oxygen and never wake up.
It’s never a good idea to be desperately looking for love.