Rorschach spawnfest

Let's do the Rolf Harris bit. Can you tell what it is yet? Maybe like the old ink-blot test it'll tell you something about your psyche!

Playing around I thought it looked somewhat alien in nature .............

but yes, it's just a frog or three.
Each spring the ponds at the Nagshead RSPB reserve throb to the motorbike thrum of hundreds of mating frogs. It may not look too much at first .........
but a close-up of the blob in the middle shows a mass of frogs.
In terms of spawn this was early days yet. By today there is probably a mass more spawn, but for me it's the noise that's the thing to live in the memory. I took a stack of shots a couple of years ago, and took a stack more this year, although as seems to be the case of late the weather fell far short of what I'd hoped for. Rather than put up too many more of the (grey) same, a few pic's of one of the groups of 3 frogs 'glued together - a female sandwiched between 2 males.


In the shot below you can see how both the males have distended throats as they are caught in mid-croak, gently squeezing their resigned suitress between resonating airbags.

OK, a couple of standard shots to finish.

If you live nearby pop along and just follow the motocross sound - soon though, or you'll miss it.

The frog chorus

No Oscar winner but there's a video of the frogs at Nagshead HERE . If you can hear past the recorder hiss you can just (and mean just) hear something of the croaking males.

And a couple more shots in need of a home ........

The Eyes Have It.

The pictures posted recently by Chris, Andy and Brian of frogs in the Forest of Dean, the promise of at least some sun, and freedom from needing to be in mobile phone contact saw me head off to Nagshead, full of hope that a) there would be frogs there, and b) by this time they would be well into spawning mode.
Happily the answer to both was yes. The ponds sounded like the motocross circuit at Marshfield as hundreds croaked away, and the problem was how to get a clear shot of the little blighters in amongst the crowds.
Then again how do you snap a frog? There are the orgy shots .....
the floating on the top shots .....
the courting couple shots ....
the eye shots ....
the 'Satchmo' cheek pouch mid-croak shots ....
or the portrait shots.
Sorry about the numbers. I took way, way too many (this is less than 3%), and jiggered my back again especially for the more eye level shots. It had only just settled down from the previous weekends gardening!
In the end these are my two favourites (for now at least), and both feature the eyes.
I really like the Peeping Tom shot. All these are shown in much better quality HERE - just click the link and look in the 'Latest Pictures' album.

Our Garden - Very Local Patching

Maybe it's my Scottish bloodline, but I can be a bit of a skinflint at times. I had this idea that a hide would be useful, but I'm really not sure how much I would use it so I decided to try and put one together myself. A real value dome tent from Florida - £10, you have to admit it's a bargain - and some camouflage material to go over it. A bit of judicious cutting and sewing by Kay's mum - how else would she wish to spend her time when she came to visit! - and I had windows and 'blinds' . I decided to try it out in the garden, and certainly these blue tits didn't seem too bothered. I love the shot below for the bird's expression (I know, but can't I anthropomorphise sometimes?), and so should probably have posted at a higher resolution, but I'm not on broadband yet and pictures are so slow to upload. You can always click on the picture for a bigger version.

The great tits didn't play ball, so I just got rear end shots.

Inevitably the sparrows got in on the act, but the male couldn't quite seem to work out how to reach the food.

Elsewhere the collared doves have cottoned on to the using the feeders, but the balance needs can be a bit of a weakness.

Our 3 young blackbirds are thriving on raisins, and the mealworms should come tomorrow, so I expect to get some better snaps than this through-the-kitchen-window grab.

Down at the pond the Lady's Smock paints a picture of spring ......

whilst various water based larvae make their final bid for the bright lights of the adult world. I think this may have belonged to the mayfly that flitted briefly around ......

and I am sure this one belonged to the large red damselfly that perched nearby.

In the pond itself we have a nice little colony of newts that appeared within weeks. Trying to get a half decent picture last year was becoming a bit of an obsession, until the moment of ultimate shame and embarrassment when the tripod complete with camera toppled in - thank God for insurance

This year the newts include a pale form that appears almost golden. It stands out a mile, so I guess it's lucky we don't seem to get any pond predators. The small crest can just about be seen on the second shot.