Spawn again

A few weeks ago we had a warm spell and the local frogs spawned.  Then came the long cold snap and the frog spawn was frozen in the pond.  At that time I had taken the precaution of removing some spawn to protect it, and the tadpoles from that spawning are doing well.

This is the second year that the frog spawn has been severely damaged by cold weather.  I thought a rescue was needed.  However, the frogs are back and in the pond again.

There is quite a bit of activity today and, though the frog numbers are low, they have spawned again.  Clearly these are different frogs, but the second spawning is good news for the population.

Of course, my well developed tadpoles from the first round will be streets ahead of the second wave.  I suspect that most of the new tadpoles will be consumed by an array of very hungry newts.  We still have smooth newts in the pond, I have not seen any of the palmate newts for a couple of years now.  Either, I am missing them, or they have not fared well over the last two cold winters.