spawn

What our animals are doing this month

April 1, 2025 by Admin

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!

Spawn

March 1, 2025 by Admin

Written by Paul Arestides, Transforming Lives Trainee

Frog, toad or newt?

As shown in the below photos, frog spawn is laid in clumps of jelly-like eggs, usually in shallow parts of water. Toad spawn is laid in long chains of double-rowed single eggs and is usually in deeper water, it’s also a lot harder to see! Newts lay single eggs inside folded leaves.

Is there too much Frog spawn in my pond?

You can never have too much! Only a small amount of spawn will survive to become tadpoles with even less becoming froglets and eventually adult frogs. This is why frogs lay thousands of eggs each year to ensure at least some of them survive.

The spawn in my pond hasn’t developed properly.

Unfortunately, this does happen frequently, and there are many factors as to why spawn may not develop. Frog spawn needs sun and warmth to become tadpoles, a frost or prolonged cold spell may kill off the eggs, also too much shade means the spawn might not get enough sunlight and warmth to develop quick enough. Nature will find a way, some years will be better than others.

Can you move frogspawn to different ponds?

We always advise never to transfer spawn, tadpoles or amphibians. This is due to the risk of spreading invasive animals and plants and also amphibian diseases.

We start getting frogspawn sightings in the UK around January, normally in the Southwest first where the climate is milder. It’s a great time of excitement to see if your garden pond or a local water body is alive with breeding amphibians.

You can log your findings on our free Dragon Finder App available to download on your mobile device.

For advice on amphibians and reptiles, you can visit our FAQ pages.

What our animals are doing this month…

May 1, 2024 by Admin

Late spring or early summer is a good time to be on the lookout for tadpoles! You might spot common frog or common toad tadpoles or, if you are lucky and on the coast, you might even spot natterjack toad tadpoles!

You might have spotted a few tadpoles already as frogs can lay their frogspawn as early as January and it can take two to four weeks for tadpoles to hatch out. As the tadpoles grow, they become faintly speckled with gold/brown and will slowly grow back and front legs!

Common toads breed a little later than common frogs, laying double strings of spawn and wrapping it carefully around vegetation. Again, it will take two to four weeks for the tadpoles to hatch out. To tell the difference between frog and toad tadpoles, you simply have to look at their colour. Toad tadpoles remain jet black and can also form shoals so can be easier to spot.

Natterjack toad spawn. Credit: Matt Wilson

The natterjack toad is confined to just a handful of sites on the coast in the UK and is only found on the Solway Coast in Scotland. Breeding for natterjack toads takes place in March/April but can continue into the early summer. So, depending on the natterjacks in your area, you may see males waiting by the pond edge (making loud rasping noises to attract the females), natterjack toad spawn or even some tadpoles! Natterjack toad spawn is laid in single strings with their tadpoles being smaller than common toad tadpoles and sporting a grey spot on their throat.

Always remember to record your amphibian and reptile sightings on our FREE Dragon Finder app. All of the data collected is sent to the National Biodiversity Network Atlas. You can download the app here.

What our animals are doing this month…

April 1, 2024 by Admin

Written by Jade Walton, Transforming Lives Trainee

Now that spring is well under way, we have entered a very exciting time in the life cycles of our native amphibian species. As slightly warmer weather hits, our amphibians leave their overwintering sites and head to ponds to breed. Now we are in April, many of our amphibians will have laid their eggs, so now is the perfect time to spot the spawn in your local ponds!

Here is a quick guide to the eggs and breeding rituals of some of our native amphibians:

Common Frog

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 Toad

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 Toads on Roads project gathers wonderful volunteers across the UK to assist the toads in their road crossing journeys, saving many toad lives in the process! Once they enter the pond, much like with common frogs, male toads will ‘piggy back’ on to a female (amplexus). The spawn of the common toad is laid in long double strings, strewn around underwater plants (rather than in clumps). The natterjack toad lays eggs in a single strand!

Newts

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.

When out and about, see if you can spot any amphibian eggs in your local area and remember to record them on our free Dragon Finder App!

#StopSpawnSales- What you can do to help

March 11, 2024 by Admin

Froglife run our annual #StopSpawnSales social media campaign during March to tackle the illegal practice of selling wild-caught amphibian spawn and tadpoles online.

As most of us are aware, we are now in the peak of amphibian breeding season as our species are laying their eggs in ponds and pools across the country. This time of year also sees an unfortunate sharp rise in sales of wild-caught amphibian spawn (and even tadpoles) on online selling sites.

One of the biggest reasons for people buying spawn/tadpoles online is to stock their ponds at home. However, if there is no spawn or tadpoles in your garden pond, then there is a good reason for this. Either your pond hasn’t had time to establish or the pond/ surrounding environment is unsuitable and this could result in the bought spawn failing or the tadpoles that develop from it to die.

Another reason for people buying spawn/ tadpoles is to use them as an educational tool and watch them develop at home. We aren’t party poopers! We know how fascinating it can be to take spawn home, watch it grow and release the tadpoles/froglets back into the wild, but we want people to do this legally and safely! Not only is there a massive risk of spreading amphibian disease and viruses, invasive plants and invertebrates, but the sale of wild-caught spawn or tadpoles is an offence under The Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.

What you can do to #StopSpawnSales:

Never buy wild-caught spawn/tadpoles online! If you decide to raise frogspawn, it is crucial that all tadpoles/froglets/toadlets are released to the ponds where they were found to prevent spreading disease and invasive species
If you see wild-caught spawn/tadpoles for sale on social media or online marketplaces, please report it to the marketplace itself in the first instance
If further action is needed (i.e the posts aren’t taken down), please report it to your local Police’s Wildlife Crime Officer (with screen shots of the advert if possible)
Spread the word! like and share our social media posts and encourage those around you to #StopSpawnSales

Further resources:

FSC Guide to Keeping Common Frog Tadpoles

Amphibian FAQs

Information on UK Amphibians

Just Add Water guide (a guide for creating wildlife ponds)

Wildlife at Home (guides on how to make your gardens more wildlife friendly)

Preparing for Spring

February 1, 2024 by Admin

Written by Ellia Cobb, Transforming Lives Trainee.

It’s almost springtime again! Reptiles and amphibians will be getting ready to come out of their brumation and begin their breeding season, so what can you do to help them? If you have a wildlife pond at home it is important to finish up any pond maintenance you might want to do before the weather starts to warm up. Disturbing breeding and egg-laying amphibians can be very harmful, so ensuring good pond maintenance is essential.

Preparing your wildlife pond for spring is a simple task as they don’t require much work. Cutting back reed and grass from the pond if it is too overgrown to allow more sunlight in can hugely benefit the pond, but remember to leave enough for the breeding amphibians! Another thing you can do is remove leaf litter and sediment build up from the pond to prevent a decrease in the water quality, but this should be done before spring. Anything that is removed should be left by the pond for a few days just in case any wildlife remains inside of it, this gives them time to make their way back to the water (please see our Just Add Water guide for further tips).

Newts need vegetation to lay their eggs and toads and frogs need a safe place to lay their spawn away from predators.

The changing weather can be quite confusing for amphibians so it isn’t uncommon for them to start breeding earlier than expected, so don’t be alarmed if you spot any spawn or eggs quite early on. You do not need to move or disturb them. Newts need vegetation to lay their eggs and toads and frogs need a safe place to lay their spawn away from predators, so providing native pond plants and safe places for them to hide before spring starts is the best idea.

As for reptiles bramble, compost heaps, log piles, gorse and wooded areas are all places they may choose to breed in. This means that any garden maintenance shouldn’t be done during this time to prevent disturbance and endangerment.

You can find further information on how to make your gardens more wildlife friendly in our Idea Zone.