It is the spring equinox today, when we have equal night and day. After today, the days win out over the nights. From 12 hours at the equinox, the day length will extend to 16 hours by midsummer. Today also hails astronomical spring, as opposed to meteorological spring which began on March 1st.
Where are the tadpoles? I search the pond and see a few around, but so few. We had only one lot of spawn, but even in that spawn there would have been thousands of eggs. Either they are widely spread around the pond, hanging on to vegetation, or lots didn’t hatch out, or have died since. I’ll keep watching.
Two adult newts have been seen in the pond. This means we are likely to have newts again. Unlike frogs, newts don’t lay a mass of spawn, but lay their eggs singly under a leaf. Not as prolific as frogs but a female can lay 200 to 300 eggs. The adults will eat frog tadpoles, but not many. Cold blooded creatures have a much smaller appetite compared to warm blooded animals.
I have been observing the hazel by the greenhouse. From about six weeks ago it had male catkins, long dangly earrings, but the females hadn’t come yet. They are tiny, and you really have to be looking for them to notice them at all. As the male catkins were dying off, I spot the female flowers. Well, hardly flowers but tiny stigmas poking out of a bud. I try to photograph them but they are so tiny my camera won’t focus on them. I have to put a sheet of paper behind them to get a reasonable photo of them.
The hazel is monoicous which means it has two sexes on the tree. This sounds contradictory, mono meaning one. But it means you only need one tree for the reproduction. But to add to the confusion, the hazel mostly lets the male catkins die off before the female flowers appear. This is to prevent self fertilisation. Cross fertilisation, pollen and eggs from different plants, gives stronger offspring.
The silver birch has its male catkins but no females yet. Easily confused with the males are the dangling collection of seeds, produced last year and still on the tree. I shall watch for the appearance of the females.
There’s lots of blossom: the kerria by the Dare to Dream, the plum tree by the herb bed. The spiraea is giving us its festoons of blossoms. Not quite full, but will be in a few days.
The willows are the first trees in new leaf in the garden. Especially noticeable in the living hedge by the side of the pond near the doors. Speaking of doors, a child in the week was going around counting them all. She made it 22. But I think she missed a few. And then a conundrum; is a gate a door? I think so. It is a door at the entrance to a field or a garden. So our front gate would count too.
I watch a tabby cat for a little while. It goes to the heap of dead vegetation and wood that we have built up near the Dare to Dream to be a frog hideaway. And it digs. It doesn’t find anything, but I have an unpleasant thought. Have cats killed our frogs? Is that why we had so few this year? Not enough evidence to make my case, just a strong suspicion. Cats kill 27 to 55 million birds a year in the UK, so a few adult frogs would be chickenfeed. Even well fed cats will go for frogs. It makes me think of fish in ponds. They will eat the spawn and then the tadpoles and other wildlife. There is then a choice; if you want tadpoles and other wildlife, then don’t have fish in your pond.
Cat lovers won’t like my suspicions. But is indisputable cats kill birds, and it known that they kill adult frogs too. They are predators. If they are killing the adults, then we have to think what we can do about it. A cat deterrent in the pile. I don’t know how well they work, but if I am right, then maybe next year we’ll have no tadpoles at all if we are unable to deter the cats in some way.
The RSPB recommend a product called CATwatch to keep cats away, which we should strongly consider buying. We stick it in the frog hideaway, and if effective, it should ensure adult frogs survive.