I've been in England a lot lately where the weather has been very mild, considering it's officially winter here, I was back in Ireland at the weekend and went for a walk in the country side. There in its usual place was a mass of frog spawn.(Rana temporaria the european common frog) Nothing much unusual about that but for the fact it was only the 3rd Feb and the spawn was several days old. I normally expect to see the first frog spawn around here on the 17th Feb give or take a day. So the season is way ahead already. Of course a vicious cold spell in the coming weeks could wipe out the whole lot, then any other more prudent frogs could spawn later and have more chance of survival. Common frogs are supposed to be explosive breeders; meaning that they all breed within a few days of each other but this seems to be getting interrupted by mild weather. Anyway roll on global warming I say. I was in Cyprus in December and there I saw a male green toad (Bufo viridis) hopping in the garden a few days after Christmas day. I don't know if that's normal for southern Europe but it made my day.

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