Breeding Toads

Despite having to scrape the windscreen yesterday morning, it was a bright and breezy day and I set off for a walk on the downs to check one of my favourite dewponds for any signs of toad activity. 

Usually by the first week of March, this pond is heaving with breeding toads but on my arrival it looked very much like the main event was nearly over. 

This should really be no surprise, as the winter has been unusually mild.

 I normally expect to see dozens of breeding toads but I only saw about five pairs. However, the pond side was absolutely clogged with spawn, signalling that many pairs had already been and gone.

Common Toad (Bufo bufo)

During the breeding season, the highly charged males will fight each other off in a frenzied attempt to grasp a female and she can disappear into a ball of writhing males. Occasionally, sadly, females are accidentally drowned. I think that this is what has happened to the female in the following image. There were no signs of her having been predated upon.

Back on 5th February, Bob and I saw our first Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta) of the year whilst we were walking on Ashdown Forest.

Essentially a migrant to our shores, this species has only relatively recently been able to survive the winter in Britain. It is a continuously breeding species and does not have the ability to hibernate. Many fly south in the Autumn but some overwinter as adults or larvae. Adult butterflies need to roost during inclement weather and they must go in search of food during sunny and mild spells in order to stay alive.

The heathland of Ashdown Forest provides plenty of thick insulating layers of dead bracken in which to roost and plenty of winter-flowering gorse to nectar upon.

Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta)