Meteorologists would tell us that March 1st is the beginning of Spring but we would define Spring in the northern hemisphere as starting at the March equinox in astronomical terms, usually around March 19th to 21st, but already in my garden pond the frogs are stirring already I have seen four today and at least three are mating, I saw two males clasping a female holding tightly to her she was a crimson colour and I feared they may have been killing her, however I did notice later one had let go and she was mating with one male.

The Common frog is average size of 50 – 111mm and varies in colour from light brown to olive-green, the young males usually overwinter in water, so you can sometimes hear the males croaking to attract a female who would have spent the winter under cover in a log pile or under a paving slab in the garden anywhere she could get shelter from the winter elements.

Frogs normally breed about mid April, but you may find frogspawn in your garden pond any time after the New Year depending on how mild the winter has been, I shall keeps an eye out this next week to see if any appears in the pond, but we could still have a cold snap and any ice may make any frogspawn there is sink to the bottom of the pond.

But for now I will just keep counting the frogs and think we are only a couple of weeks  away from saying it is really Spring.