Where to find frogspawn?

We are having increasing numbers of  frog spawn sightings in January and occasionally as early as December, especially from the south west. Have you seen any yet? Help us build a picture of what’s happening to wildlife near you.

Where to find frogs spawn and what to record for Nature's Calendar. 

1. Frog spawn can be found in still water such as ponds, ditches, and some slow-moving streams. Frogs will often choose well vegetated shaded and shallow ponds to breed.
2. If you live in the south west it’s time to start looking for Nature’s Calendar – frogs spawn in this part of the UK earlier because it’s generaly warmer. If you can’t determine when the spawn you find was laid though please don’t record.
3. The exact date the spawn appears is the vital information. So please keep checking any bodies of water that you visit regularly.
4. Depending on the local conditions, tadpoles hatch around 21 days later and will start to grow legs around 16 days after this. In early summer, once the tails have been absorbed, they emerge from the water as small froglets.

How to tell the difference between frog and toad spawn? 

Don’t confuse frog spawn and toad spawn. Frog spawn is laid in jelly-like clumps but toad spawn is laid in what looks like long strings. 

What do frogs eat?

Tadpoles start life as herbivores eating algae and other plant scum. As they grow and start to develop they expand their diets to include other plant material, dead insects, and even each other if food is scarce.

By the time they are adults, frogs are entirely carnivorous and will eat a whole range of insects including flies and moths which they catch with their long sticky tongues.

Why should we record frog spawn? 

Frog spawn is popular and easily identifiable and people have been recording first sightings for Nature’s Calendar since 2000. Our climate is changing which will produce some ‘winners’, who are well adapted to change, and some ‘losers’, who cannot adapt quickly enough. It is possible that frogs will be losers if many are fooled into spawning too early. 

We receive records most years of some exceptional sightings in November and December. If more typical winter conditions return, such early spawn is vulnerable to freezing while it floats on the top of the pond. Frogs only mate once per season so if they are caught out, their breeding effort for the year is wasted.

Long-term monitoring of species like the common frog will help scientists gain a greater understanding of this issue, and provide policymakers with hard evidence.

Frogs spawn desktop calendar
Download our frogs spawn wallpaper to remind you what to look out for this month.