Frog frenzy!

Just over 2 years ago we built our own pond here at Hazelwood Conservation HQ. We've had frogs each spring since and this year is certainly no exception. Following the warm weather at the weekend we've had at least 16 frogs tussling and croaking for their mating rights in our little pond.

It took a bit of patience - but after slowly creeping up on the pond we were able to get some great shots of our amphibian visitors.

The common frog is the first UK native amphibian to return to their ponds to start breeding each spring, followed by common toads a few weeks later and then the newt species after that. So whenever we see frogs in our pond, we know that the great crested newt survey season is just around the corner!

We've been busy this past few weeks working on a school garden project involving a living willow tunnel and some of our woodland crafts. We'll be doing a full blog post with photos about this when everything is complete.