Garden Wildlife UK

The first tadders from the late batch of spawn are free swimming already. I think the warm sunshine has brought them on quicker than the early batches.

Ancient tradition has it that the first free-swimming tadpoles (F-STs) are eligible for entry into the Great Easter Egg Hunt . There's always a rush

I have now commenced feeding the tadpoles that have been free swimming for a couple of weeks. The offer of supplementary food has been keenly accepted

That's nice - healthy hungry taddies. Bless .......

I spotted a tadpole with a set of rear legs today for the first time this year.
An upside to the poor weather as the pond levels have returned to normal.

Maybe the floods stimulated the taddy spurt of growth ?? Shock to the metabolism and all that ......
Or are they right on schedule which knocks that theory on the head

I had a trawl in the nature pond today with the aim getting some duckweed out. Inevitably I always get some tadders too. I still have them at all stages of the cycle and some seem to have grown very little. I have no idea why some prosper while other mark time.

Maybe some are pushy and some are the quiet, retiring types who are always bullied out of their fair share of taddy tasties.

The first blob of Spawn has appeared much to my astonishment as I've not actually seen a frog for about 10 days. It has been deposited in the pond I cleared out in the shallow end which sees the most sun.

Simples - not seen 'cos they've been, errrr, engaged elsewhere. Spring is sprunging everywhere