Frost Damage

Not a beautiful blip today, but it does tell a story.

The white dots are dead frogspawn. Having been encased in ice on at least nine or ten different occasions since they were laid at the beginning of February, this is no surprise. Maybe a bigger surprise are the tadpoles which have hatched and survived the cold! There are about eight in this picture. There are also some still-viable eggs (one just below the tail of the central tadpole) which just need a bit of warmth and sunshine to develop.

Elswhere amid the frogspawn, there are eggs in various stages of development. The green scum is worse than usual, as the spawn has been hanging around for so long. Normally, they hatch within a couple of weeks, and the scum disappears. The spawn has been around for about eight weeks this year, and the pond still has its winter look, althought the marsh marigold buds have appeared and with a bit of luck will be opening in the next few days.