Written by Eve Goddard, Transforming Lives Trainee.
Spring is the time when amphibians will be emerging from their overwintering sites to make their way to ponds ready for breeding season. Typically, they will head out at night, providing protection from some predators, favouring damp conditions suitable for their skin.
Our three native newt species, great crested, smooth and palmate will travel up to 500m to a suitable breeding pond. The males undergo physiological changes, for example; palmate newts will develop a filament on the end of the tail, and the smooth and great crested newt’s crests will grow in readiness for their aquatic display dance!
Once mating has taken place, the females will be very busy, laying up to 300 individual eggs in vegetation in the pond, gently folding leaves around their precious eggs for protection.
Newts may well have been beaten to the pond by the common frog, who can sometimes emerge far earlier – sometimes spawn will be seen from as early as January!
The common toad, adopting a more leisurely pace will tend to breed in late spring, heading back to the pond they were spawned from. They will travel up to an enormous 5km! Common toad’s spawn is laid in ‘strings’ of dual rows of eggs which will be wrapped around vegetation. The common frog’s spawn is laid in clumps or ‘rafts’ making it easy to distinguish the two.
With all this activity, Spring is a great time to head out on nature walks and see what you can discover in your local blue and green spaces.
Don’t forget to record any sightings on our free Dragon Finder App!
Potentially as early as January in the South East of England, and up to April in other areas of the UK, the common frog will emerge from their winter hideouts and head back to a pond. Male frogs will ‘piggy back’ on their chosen female using their nuptial pads to hold on tightly. This is a process known as ‘amplexus’. He will then fertilise her spawn as she lays it. Common frog eggs are laid in clumps, with up to 2,000 eggs laid in one single clump. Female frogs can lay up to 4,000 eggs over one breeding season.
Common toads will ritually return to the same pond for breeding each year where possible. They take advantage of warmer, damp spring evenings to leave their overwintering sites and return to their specific pond. This behaviour makes them notorious for crossing roads over night and putting themselves at risk of being run over. Our 
Once the warmer weather of spring hits, newts too will venture back to a suitable pond to breed and lay eggs. Males of each newt species will perform elaborate ‘dances’ to attract the attention of females, who will choose which male gets to fertilise their eggs. Newt eggs are laid in a very different way to toads and frogs. A female newt will lay each egg individually, she will lay the egg on the leaf of an aquatic plant and carefully fold the leaf around the egg to protect it, giving the leaf a very straight edge where it has been folded over. Newts lay less eggs than their toad and frog counterparts, but females will still lay hundreds over the season.
