Look out for frogs

 

Common frog (the zoologist's name is Rana temporaria)

It may still seem absurdly early, but frogs should be spawning very soon in parts of Britain now.

This time last year the south-west of England, and South Wales, had already seen the first frog spawn (see map here).

And this is nothing to do with global warming – frogs have always spawned early in the south-west.

Nearly 50 years ago, Maxwell Savage wrote in his classic study ‘The ecology and life history of the common frog’:

‘The earliest areas for spawning, with dates in January, occur only in two places: in the Dartmoor and Exmoor areas of Devonshire, with an extension into South Wales…’ 

50 years ago: when Maxwell Savage thought frog spawning started. The map shows the number of days after January 1st when frogs spawn. So 30 = 31st January, 40 = 10th February and so on