Frogs and Toads

We went for a lovely walk today, round Blackford Pond and along the Braid Burn. Blackford Pond had a good number of tufted ducks, mallards with a couple of swans, two greylag geese, a coot and a moorhen. Under the water there were a load of common toads, some mating, some fighting, others just sitting. A lot of the females were different colours. The nearby marshy wildlife garden had a muddy pond with a few common frogs and a lot of frogspawn. Then in the field behind the nearby allotments we found a marshy patch, which was alive with frogs croaking, mating, fighting and chasing each other. The area was full of frogspawn. Such a wonderful sight given the perilous situation many amphibians find themselves in these days.

The wooded area along the Braid Burn was covered in wild garlic, growing like a particularly luxuriant grass, plenty of ferns in good leaf. The trees were full of birdsong and there were loads of jackdaws calling and flying around. We saw a dipper rushing along the river and two grey wagtails feeding and fluttering over the water.