One of the nicest beacons of spring must be frog spawn. The snow drops arrive first and then comes daffodils, that most essential of spring flowers, and amphibian spawn.
Last year we designed a small barrel pond and managed to attract frogs, newts and a variety of water insects. Unfortunately, come summer time and beyond, it mainly consisted of mosquito larvae. This naturally led to a plethora of winged assassins hanging around the garden and sneaking in to get me while I was sleeping! It is always me who gets bitten first and clearly my blood is far sweeter than the wife's!
Unfortunately a decision had to be made and we opted to fill in the barrel with compost and grow wild flowers instead. This move, whilst eminently sensible, placed us in the uncomfortable position of being without spawn as spring advanced swiftly upon us.
Now we could not have that and the solution is ever so simple. From my Uncle's pond, which was full to the brim with amphibian eggs, my mum extracted a couple of small clumps and transferred them to a bucket. It is essential to keep spawn in pond water, as you can guarantee tap water will finish it off in record time.
Our interest in reptiles means we always have a plastic tank or two kicking around, so in went the spawn and pond water. The tank, a really decent size but not so large it will get in the way, is now residing under one of our mini wooden benches in the corner by our back gate. The boys are enjoying making weekly checks to watch the little black dots morph into slightly larger black dots with tails! We will kit it out with rocks and a couple of water plants, so they can watch the full wonder of metamorphosis. Once the process is complete we will drive down the lanes and drop off the little ones at their parent pond.
Anyone who doesn't do this sort of thing with the kids is really missing a trick.
No comments:
Post a Comment