{"id":1338,"date":"2009-03-15T22:03:28","date_gmt":"2009-03-15T22:03:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/archives\/1338"},"modified":"2013-11-15T00:16:02","modified_gmt":"2013-11-15T00:16:02","slug":"frog-and-fox-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/frog-and-fox-update\/","title":{"rendered":"Frog and fox update"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

I just managed to delete this whole post before posting it, so this is the second attempt (this time I've locked the tab to prevent accidental closure) :doh: Anyway, it's an update on the frogs as promised, and starts on Saturday morning when I went outside to find that at least a couple of our frogs may have lost their sense of direction.
<\/span> Spawn laid at the side of the pond<\/span><\/p>\n

With care I managed to lift the spawn (it's unbelievably sticky) and place it in the pond, where it promptly sank! It finally settled just beneath the surface as it began to swell in the water and regain some bouyancy. I'll keep an eye to see whether it survives.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile the frogs themselves are very active. I'm never quite sure whether they are guarding the spawn, or just basking and frolicking.
<\/span> Saturday Night Fever!<\/span><\/p>\n

The spawn is doing well, and the early signs of cell division are evident.
<\/span> Frog spawn after two days<\/span><\/p>\n

We have a very healthy crop of spawn this year (much better than last year), which may be just as well since the predators are already on the prowl.
<\/span> Newt prowling over frog spawn<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span> Newt attack<\/span><\/p>\n

Those shots were Saturday night, as was this video of a fox \ud83d\ude00 It was captured with the trail cam and is an edit of about half a dozen 30 second clips. It starts with a local cat, but after that it's all fox. One thing that puzzled me was the fox's brush which is reminiscent of Kinky (the vixen we treated for mange a year or so ago). Having checked back over the few photos I have from this year, I suspect the featured fox is the young – shy – male we've been seeing recently. He also has that distinctive bend at the tip of his brush (see the final section of the video). A family trait? Quite possibly. Anyway, here's the video. It may take a few moments to load. And yes, that is a cat at the start of it…<\/p>\n

<\/span>
Direct link<\/a><\/span>
\"Nature<\/a><\/span>
Camera note: the 'land spawn' and mass of frogs were taken with the EF 24-105 F4L IS USM lens; the newts and macro spawn were taken with the Sigma 105mm F2.8 EX DG macro and EM-140 DG ring flash. The video was taken with a GL80 infra-red trail cam.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,86,1047,1026],"tags":[1128,1149,114,173],"class_list":["post-1338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-foxes","category-frog","category-frog-spawn-amphibians-2","category-newt-amphibians-2","tag-fox","tag-frog","tag-newt","tag-spawn","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t