The first frogs of the season are now breeding. Not spring peepers. Wood frogs (Rana sylvatica)
Some have already spawned:
Wood frogs are among the most cold tolerant frogs in the world, and they have a unique adaptation for dealing with the cold.
They freeze solid!
How do they avoid tissue damage on thawing?
“Inside the cells there’s no ice…It’s just really, really, really dehydrated, all shrunk down osmotically and full of massive amounts of sugar.”
—Kenneth Storey, a professor of biochemistry at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada.
See Antifreeze-Like Blood Lets Frogs Freeze and Thaw With Winter’s Whims (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/02/070220-frog-antifreeze.html)
They have a natural anti-freeze in their blood.
Sadly, some of the frog spawn floating just above the water’s surface can get killed by frost and go all white, you may have noticed. That said, Nature usually provides for this by overproduction ‘knowing’,it seems, that only about one in more than a thousand upwards will survive to reproduce.
Actually, the eggs of this species are well adapted to being exposed to freezing.
http://duluthfrogblog.blogspot.com/2012/04/wood-frogs-still-calling.html
So they will hatch.
Spawning pics! FROG PORN!
Okay, I will go back to being an adult now.
We saw hundreds last Sunday in a pool at an old quarry on the Greenbrier River Trail (with 4.5 month old Zoe)
I have a rock from the Greenbrier River. I collected it when I maybe 5, when there was a drought on.
Last week, here in the south of England, we had one brief promise of Spring, one day when it was relatively warm and sunny at the end of an icy winter. In reponse to this local window of opportunity I saw exactly eight european common frogs, all bright eyed shiny and green, making their way steadily through ground cover over towards our garden pond, where I presume most were born. I was delighted because these creatures we have so taken for granted all our lives are now under threat even of extinction and around this village anyway they have noticeably diminished in numbers compared with years ago.
Instead of just watching them ponderously making their way with still many yards to go, for the first time ever I picked each one up and gently airlifted it to its intended destination where each paused for a while with legs spread out on the water’s surface before diving out of sight. What a relief some made it back!
I hope the toads and newts come back in sufficient numbers, but no sign of them yet.
My neighbours installed a large new pond last autumn, situated between us and the woodland where many of these creatures spend the winter, so maybe some of the returnees will stop off there, we’ll see.
Peter