Showing posts with label Frogs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Frogs. Show all posts

Tuesday, 5 March 2019

Windy spring day at Allerthorpe

A windy day, the tail of storm Freya, but mostly sunny and mild. I head to Allerthorpe Common. Walking through the bridleway Siskins call and upon reaching the broad area where the pylons run a cheerful chipping call alerts me to a large flock of Crossbills, more than 25. They move to a group of tall scots pines, but I manage some shots of them feeding. I came across them several times, once them sitting on birches, with males singing.
Female Crossbill.
Male Crossbill.
Singing male with female. Part of the flock, that kept together moving around.
Male Crossbill.
Although not focused, I love the contrast of the red rump of this male crossbill and the background on this shot.
A Tawny owl hooted twice at about noon. Walked to the north side of the reserve on the glade with the electricity pylons. There had been some removal of gorse and other vegetation, but I kept watch for sunbathing adders.
 I returned the same way and entered the small YWT reserve. There were lots of minotaur beetle exit holes on the ground, and just next to one I saw a beetle! I jumped for joy only to realise it was dead!
Minotaur beetle nest hole.
And the dead Minotaur beetle female. Some marks in the elythra suggest predation, and it feels like an empty shell, maybe only the abdomen contents (eggs?) predated.
I got to the largest pond in the heath. There was a large congregation of spawning frogs, males squabbling for females and a lot of spawn. I estimate several hundreds of frogs were there.
Frogs spawning.
A small area of the spawning aggregation.
View of the pond.
 Although the heath is not a very large area, I walked carefully on the narrow paths made by the grazing sheep in the summer keeping my eyes peeled for adders. In a clearing, on the shelter of a patch of heather an adder was basking. I slowly lay down to her eye level. And took some shots. My binoculars made a rustling noise and the adder slithered into the heather.

Adder.
I waited a few minutes and the adder slowly came out. I managed a short video before it disappeared for good.

I came across this frog near the pond.

A view of the heath, with a few large pine trees and birch.
There are three owl boxes fixed onto the trees. They appear to be in use. Underneath the one above I found this lovely mound of owl pellets. I will update once I find out what's in them.
Barn owl pellets.


A view of the heath.
I had heard the contact call of Siskins, and later I came across Redpolls and Siskins on the birch trees, singing with some Goldfinches.
A male Redpoll
Siskin.
Marsh Tit with food.

Monday, 19 March 2012

Wildlife Watching at the Pearson Park Wildlife Garden

We spend the aftenoon in the Wildlife garden with the Hull Wildlife Watch group. Sunny, if a bit chilly, the kids planted wheat seeds and hyacinths and played the migration game. There was plenty of wildlife to watch too. A pair of confiding robins were around us all the time, one of them peeping softly to the other regularly as a contact note. The male robin also sung on an off from the hazels. A blackbird joined him at some point too.
 A queen bumblebee (top photo) fed on the blackthorn blossom and a male hairy footed flower bee, Anthophora plumipes on the rosemary.
  There were also plenty of wildflowers, Speedwell,  Lesser Celandine, Daffodils and Red Dead Nettle, with the Snowdrops now gone.
Daffodil
Speedwell
Lesser Celandine
Red Dead Nettle
The pond was busy too. Amongst the carpet of frogspawn, a lone male kept calling. The newts are still in the water and I also saw a pair of mating water boatmen (boatpeople?).
 Calling male frog
Water Boatman
 A dried thistle flowehead
 The prepared bed for the "bake your lawn" wheat
 The fresh leaves of hazel
 Sunbathing ladybirds
 A centipede we found on the leaf litter
 The finishing touches after planting the wheat, a nice willow fence
A duck egg, maybe predated by a fox?

A wonderful afternoon in the wildlife garden enjoyed by everybody!

Wednesday, 14 March 2012

Calling and fighting male frogs

We visited Pearson Park Wildlife garden to watch the mating frogs. We sat next to a few males which vigorously defended their spot. The one on the top shot, the lovely male closest to us, shows how the male frogs' white throat stands out like a torch while they are calling, which probably helps females locate them. Also in this photo you can see the dark hardened pads next to the thumbs of the male. These are called "nuptial pads" and are thought to aid in the gripping of the female by the male. They might also be used for fighting, as the photo below shows
The male underneath is the "intruder", the resident gripped him hard, he didn't like it and moved away
He carried on calling every 30 seconds or so, a low, "prrrrr". I was very pleased with this shot which shows the ripples that calling causes in the water, and his inflated throat.

 And here is a side view too


Wednesday, 17 March 2010

Calling frogs

Spring is upon us. Male common frogs (Rana temporaria) have gathered in the pond at Pearson Park Wildlife Garden and call for females and scramble. There were plenty of males but I only saw two females in the pond and still no frogspawn. I have so many photos of the mating frogs from past years that today I decided to concentrate in trying to get the males in the moment they call. The male's white-bluish throats inflate and they tend to 'blink', which spoilt some of the photos, but I was quite pleased with a few. The call of the Common frog has been likened to a rumbling distant motorbike, but to me it sounds like a cat purring loudly, but in any case, it is only audible (to  humans anyway, I am not sure to females) within a range of a few meters, and sounds nothing like 'ribbet' at all!