ST201903

W

hen appreciating frogs, the first

thing you need to ensure is that you

aren’t appreciating toads instead

(though they undoubtedly deserve

our fondness, too). So, how to tell the

difference? When disturbed, frogs

tend to hop and toads tend to crawl. Frogs have smooth

skin, toads have warty skin. Frogs have black patches

behind the eye, toads have large lumps (parotoid glands)

behind the eye. And, unlike toads, frogs are indiscriminate

spawners, they will breed in any convenient water, as

opposed to returning to the ancestral pool. Ditches and

temporary puddles are often used.

In spring, there’s so much action at the pond, all you have

to do is watch a while. On a sunny day, a sparrow bathes in

the shallows amid indolent, sunning tadpoles. Occasionally

I’ve seen a dead female frog f loating face down; male frogs

can embrace their partner so closely during breeding they

can actually crush them. If the water is clear you can see

through to the multitudinous life underwater; the diving

dytiscid beetles, the darting larvae, the tumbling red mites.

DH Lawrence once noted: “Water is hydrogen two

parts, oxygen one, but there is also a third – a thing that

makes it water. And nobody knows what that is.” Even

the basic element of a pond is divine mystery.

Frogs hide along the edge, secreted in the grass. Every

few steps I walk, a frog pops into the water. How far can
frogs jump? I conducted an experiment once, with a
builder’s tape measure; an impressive one metre and 27
centimetres was the day’s record.
Another day a heron is standing in the water, motionless
as if time were no consequence and nothing could break its
vengeful concentration. I’m to within four metres before
the spell is broken and it cranks into the air on wings raised
by pulleys. It has been eating frogs, camouf laged and as green
as the sedge in which they lurk, able to change colour to suit
their surroundings, like chameleons, but mortally slow.
Spring is the most exciting time for pond dipping; the
lengthening days trigger the growth of water plants and
almost all pond animals feel the need to breed. I roamed
the quarry ponds of my rural Herefordshire childhood
armed with my Observer’s Book of Pond Life, a DIY net
made from nylon tights and coat hangers and my collection
receptacle was a Robertson’s jam jar with a string handle.
This is how children become interested in nature. Now
I discover the former quarry is a local nature reserve,
where rare great crested newt (and frogs) thrive, albeit
surrounded by suburbia. What better fate could there be
for a weal of industry?
John Lewis-Stempel is twice winner of the Wainwright Prize
for nature writing. His latest book, Still Water: The Deep
ILLUSTRATION: ZUZA MIŚKO Life of the Pond (Doubleday) is published on 14 March.

Words:JOHNLEWIS-STEMPEL

A

N

AP

PRECIATION OF T

HE

FRO

G

FRESH (^) | MARCH NATURE