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Frogspawn in flooded grassland..again

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SteveA View Drop Down
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    Posted: 28 Feb 2014 at 11:12am
Hi all,
 
Looks like spring has sprung, found quite a lot of frog spawn (c40 clumps) on wednesday, prob layed on monday night). No adults frogs seen or heard!
 
Once again this is all on flooded grassland and again in unexpected location (on NW facing side of tree line). Last year all our spawn was laid in flooded grassland, which although a typical behavior for common frog, did make me wonder if "flood events" are bad for the species, as every location (despite being up to 8" deep in some instances) dried up before most of the larvae were developed enough to swim to deeper water.
 
I know their population ecology is structured for big losses but 2013 did feel like an amphib black hole, we found almost no mature frogpoles or froglets despite finding around 100 spawn clumps (the most we've ever recorded).
 
Guess we should brace ourselves for another year of bucketing spawn into deeper water!
 
Oh I'm at Dawlish Warren NNR, south Devon.
 
S
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GemmaJF View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote GemmaJF Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 Feb 2014 at 11:39am
It seems 50/50 locally, in some ways the rain has brought a lot of old water bodies back to life, in others we have plenty of totally unviable 'puddles' in the fields. Though we don't see frog spawn locally, I'm certainly finding smooth newts in places where larvae have no hope at all, yet the newly filled old ponds have none using them!
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SteveA View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote SteveA Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 Mar 2014 at 12:20pm
Well seems I was mistaken, have found around 45 additional spawn clumps, most of which is older than "first find" lots now out of jelly, though not quite free swimming.  But already in danger of drying out!
 
(Thats interesting Gemma, as a child my most reliable spots for Palmate newt were seasonal ponds (well reliable rainwater hollows on heathland pre-scrapped for housing development) I guess your Smooths are seeing the glut of inverts and ignoring the shrinking margins in the same way.)
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lalchitri View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote lalchitri Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11 Mar 2014 at 12:44pm
I've got a similar problem, but in my garden pond.
A lot of the spawn was laid after some heavy rain at the border of the pond/lawn.
After a recent sunny, dry spell the water level has dropped and a lot of the spawn is stuck to the grass at the top of the pond and about 3-4 inches above the water level.
Moreover, it is stuck on a shelf at the pond edge, similar to what you can see on the right in the pic.
Should I detech the spawn, or will it dis-integrate allowing the tadpoles to drop into the water?




Edited by lalchitri - 11 Mar 2014 at 12:49pm
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will View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote will Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11 Mar 2014 at 1:16pm
personally I would detach and refloat it. You may lose some of the eggs from the bottom but leaving it there will kill them all, especially as the general forecast for much of the UK is for the dry weather to continue, so there's not much chance of it getting rehydrated / reflooded naturally.
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lalchitri View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote lalchitri Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11 Mar 2014 at 6:37pm
Originally posted by will will wrote:

personally I would detach and refloat it. You may lose some of the eggs from the bottom but leaving it there will kill them all, especially as the general forecast for much of the UK is for the dry weather to continue, so there's not much chance of it getting rehydrated / reflooded naturally.


Cheers will, will do tomorrow.
The other thing I've noticed with the land borne spawn is that the weight of all the clumps have stretched the eggs that are attached at the top and have pulled a lot of the 'nuclei' out of the yolk.
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Liz Heard View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Liz Heard Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11 Mar 2014 at 8:34pm
I'm with Will.

Good to see you posting again lalchitri. and hope you get plenty of taddies.
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