Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
General Subjects => General Forum => Topic started by: mark smyth on March 09, 2011, 12:14:25 AM
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Can we follow frogspawn as it happens across Europe and as spring heads north? Post your photos
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3rd March Larne N Ireland
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Probably the best I'll be able to do is sago for a lemon sago pudding. Yuck!
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Mine appeared yesterday. I only have a small pond but the past two years have been a disaster for the frogs that use it. In 2009 there were 80+ pairs fighting for space. Last year 2010 only 6 pairs and this year 1. I do not know if it is the two hard winters we have had or disease but not good.
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My pals John and Rosemary always have the earliest frogspawn in the district. They've had some for a couple of weeks now but they've also had a lot of dead frogs in the pond this year.
We've had a couple of love-lorn puddocks wandering in the garden but no action in the pond yet. The pond is quite deep and shaded so VERY cold.... I don't blame them for waiting!
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We've had a couple of love-lorn puddocks wandering in the garden but no action in the pond yet. The pond is quite deep and shaded so VERY cold.... I don't blame them for waiting!
There is a delightful Scots poem about a puddock:
http://www.scotsindependent.org/features/scots/puddock.htm
(There are a couple of typo errors in it: towards the bottom it should read: .......'rale bonny singer as WEEL' and first line of second verse should be 'tae sup')
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Nice link, Maureen and I see there's there's an audio file from the BBC as well, so that any "foreigners" can hear how it sounds too ;)
http://www.scotsindependent.org/features/scots/puddock.rm
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And I who believed a puddock was a "padde" (=toad) ??? What's the Scottish name of a toad then?
Haven't seen a single amphibian of any kind yet, and that is very abnormal at this time of the year :(
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In Scots you can use puddock for a frog or a toad I think.
Some use ted for toad in the Doric but I haven't heard that often.
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I've spotted some (non - native) green bell-frogs (Litoria aurea) by torch light on my evening Heidi walks. The local pet shop actually sells tadpoles! :o
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I see on the Scottish census form it asks amongst other ethnic questions 'do you speak English, Gaelic or Scottish' . I wonder if the form is in all three.
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And I who believed a puddock was a "padde" (=toad) ??? What's the Scottish name of a toad then?
Haven't seen a single amphibian of any kind yet, and that is very abnormal at this time of the year :(
From Chambers Scots Dictionary: puddock = a frog; Cf. paddock
puddock-pony = a tadpole
paddock= a frog; a toad; a term of reproach or contempt; a low, frog shaped sledge for carrying large stones.
In addition there are numerous hyphenated words with different meanings e.g. paddock-rud = frog or toadspawn; paddock-spue = frogspawn.
A frog or toad can also be a paddow, or a frog a paddy or pady. I'm not aware of any of these alternative words being in common usage, but it could vary according to which part of Scotland you are in or just fallen from usage? I think puddock is the term which endears itself to most folk.
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Very interesting, Maureen! Paddy etc has to be the same as Norw. "padde" ;D I usually have some of them living in my garden, and at my summerhouse I have several big ones!
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I see on the Scottish census form it asks amongst other ethnic questions 'do you speak English, Gaelic or Scottish' . I wonder if the form is in all three.
One could just answer "NO." ;D
Many many years ago on a NZ census paper, one question was "Was you mother born in wedlock?" My grandfather answered "Was yours?"
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Mark, 27th February, spawn in my garden pond, central scotland
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We had 80 frogs spawning last year, only 2 or 3 individuals now. :(
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They will soon make up numbers again with non breeders coming in a year or two
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I see on the Scottish census form it asks amongst other ethnic questions 'do you speak English, Gaelic or Scottish' . I wonder if the form is in all three.
It would more correctly be "Scots"?
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But is "Scots" not a noun? as in people who are Scots whereas "Scottish" is an adjective so Scottish would be correct as in the English language, Gaelic language or Scottish language? No? ???
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But is "Scots" not a noun? as in people who are Scots whereas "Scottish" is an adjective so Scottish would be correct as in the English language, Gaelic language or Scottish language? No? ???
It is both, Lesley.
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First Frogspawn in our pond today! :) :)
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But is "Scots" not a noun? as in people who are Scots whereas "Scottish" is an adjective so Scottish would be correct as in the English language, Gaelic language or Scottish language? No? ???
Lesley, Scots is the language of Burns and not spoken, except in slang, today. I remember our builder saying (when he had finished our extension in 1995) "we're no awa tae bide awa", which meant, call us if there is any snagging. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scots_language
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First Frogspawn in our pond today! :) :)
I haven't seen the spawn but yesterday the road was peppered with flat frogs - something that happens every year when they strive to get to their beloved tarn where they spawn.
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well done to your frogs
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There has been frog spawn in our pond for several weeks but today one of the hens noticed it and feasted on it. There is far less now.
Paddy
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well done to your frogs
It is really a big problem. They come in hordes and you can't drive one meter without hitting frogs. This is mostly a problem very late in the evening and very early in the morning. I always try to zigzag between the amphibians but always hit some.
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30 frogs today :D no spawn yet.
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I haven't seen a frog round here in ten years ::)
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I haven't seen a frog round here in ten years ::)
Do you want some? I have a streetfull of nice, flat ones. Easy to pack and mail. ;) :'(
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I haven't seen a frog round here in ten years ::)
Do you want some? I have a streetfull of nice, flat ones. Easy to pack and mail. ;) :'(
They will be flatpack then ... presumably croaked? :D
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I haven't seen a frog round here in ten years ::)
Do you want some? I have a streetfull of nice, flat ones. Easy to pack and mail. ;) :'(
They will be flatpack then ... presumably croaked? :D
Yes, croaked but not crooked or easily shuffled off.
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Four clusters of frogspawn in my ponies' water hole yesterday. Don't think they eat it.
At the Cruickshank Garden a pair of mallards appeared every year about the time the frogs spawned but there were so much spawn they didn't manage to eat it all
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Hi Roma
I can just imagine your ponies looking down at all these wiggly things. My pond is starting to fill up and today the herons started to appear.
Angie :)
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I haven't seen a frog round here in ten years ::)
Do you want some? I have a streetfull of nice, flat ones. Easy to pack and mail. ;) :'(
They will be flatpack then ... presumably croaked? :D
Yes, croaked but not crooked or easily shuffled off.
Seeing the above reminds me to tell you that I am an unwitting toad murderess. If you are squeamish don't read on....... Toads like to keep cool in the sand plunge in the greenhouse which is next to the front door. In warm weather the outer front door is fastened back to let more sunlight into the house. On closing it one evening there was resistance and a crunching noise. Being in a hurry, I thought little of it at the time. Imagine my horror when a few days later I opened the front door again and noticed a by now fossilised toad in the rebate.
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See the proud mother/father with her spawn. It's sitting there for 3 days now. Every once and a while some other frogs will join it.
This is the brown frog, Rana temporaria. The idea of Mark is not new. In the Netherlands exists a network of amateurs who keep track of first sights each year. See the results at the "natuurkalender" http://www.natuurkalender.nl//waarnemingen/default-analyse.asp (http://www.natuurkalender.nl//waarnemingen/default-analyse.asp), choose left "amfibie" (amphibia) and then either "bruine kikker" (Rana temporaria), "gewone pad" (Bufo bufo), "groene kikker" (Pelophylax sp), or "kleine watersalamander" (Lissotriton vulgaris). And for the language specialists: yes indeed pad = puddock = padde = Pfad and so on.
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extra info: in the bottom selecter choose "eerste eieren" (first eggs) instead of "eerste individu in water" (first individual in water).
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The spawn from the start of this thread is now tadpoles
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOlajYnsgyU[/youtube]
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Takes them a while then, to move out into the larger pond area?
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Yes Lesley. Where the frogs laid their eggs is very shallow about finger deep. The tadpoles stay in the warm shallow area before moving out to the main pond