The young frogs are out and about

I have been a little concerned that most of the tadpoles in our pond had not survived this year. Over the last 3 years I have been extracting frog spawn and putting it into a nursery pond to protect the tadpoles from predators. This has expanded a falling local frog population significantly, to the point where I have stopped doing it this year. There was a bumper quantity of spawn this year and lots of spawning frogs, in excess of 30 during one hours count, so it seemed pointless supporting a population which was close to saturation level.I was pleased to find this little chap in the vegetation at the side of the pond. It seems that some of the tadpoles have survived to feed on land. It is a tiny thing, but if it survives to next year it should be four or five times this size.
On closer inspection, there are quite a few young frogs about. It appears that the newts, which also have a good population level in the pond, and the local birds have not eaten all of the developing frogs as I had feared.

The other day, Rosie saw a small adult frog crossing the patio. The cats just watch and let them go. The cats tend to treat the local pigeons in the same way. There is a lot of tolerance in our cats when they are well fed.