Frolicking frogs spring into action

One area of Ashford can expect a population explosion in a few months time.

The ponds at The Warren are currently teeming with frogspawn.

Most frogs return to the pond of their birth from winter hibernation to mate and produce spawn in the spring.

The males return first to the pond where they were raised and attract the females to them by croaking.

They mate in shallow areas of the pond among plant growth.

Each female usually produces one clump of spawn in a season, usually in warm days in March.

This is laid as lumps about the size of a tennis ball made up of jelly and eggs on shallow shelf areas which will swell to grapefruit size as they mature and float to the surface so that many can merge to look like one jelly mat.

The adult female lays several thousand eggs to allow for huge losses. Around three weeks after spawning, the tadpoles hatch before growing into frogs.

These splendid pictures of frogs and toads were taken at The Warren and at a pond near Ashford Rugby Club by regular KE contributor Andy Clark.

Andy offered the following advice if capturing such close-up images.

He said: “I use a 600mm lens, but if you have a garden pond then 300mm is probably plenty.

“A good point-and-shoot camera would be ample, in a garden. But, keep back from the edge of the pond, even in a garden.”