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Frogspawn

19/4/2017

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PictureFrogspawn in sphagnum moss
Frogspawn was a talking point, a motif of an April day.  A glistening along the track might have been the sun melting the last of overnight frost, or gelatinous smears of frogspawn.  Sometimes frogs lay where their tadpoles surely cannot thrive- puddles that a week without rain will dry out.  We peered into pools, seeking frogspawn. Most striking was this sphere of sphagnum moss somehow injected with frogspawn.

We walked a ridge and as we climbed  we looked for flowers, tiny violets, flowering sedge, a single wood sorrel. And frogspawn.  This green mass of sphagnum rolled in the water, and was still. You can see the white spheres of jelly protecting each tadpole, and a few black flecks as they emerge.  How was this mass of frogspawn laid to interweave with sphagnum moss?  We found a seething, wriggling mass of tadpoles - for some reason a video worked well and still images did not. 
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    Jan Wiltshire is a nature writer living in Cumbria. She also explores islands and coast and the wildlife experience. (See Home and My Books)

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