Nature on your doorstep in February

THIS MONTH’S CHALLENGE: I warmly encourage you to revisit our Neighbourhood Nature project and start taking pictures again. There’s all sorts of flowers in bloom, seasonal or not, and trees are beginning to bud. It’s an exciting time to start noticing nature close up again.

THIS MONTH'S SURVEY is:
Nature’s Calendar: https://naturescalendar.woodlandtrust.org.uk/ Organised through the Woodland Trust, this survey helps track the effects of weather and climate change on wildlife across the country. There’s a fascinating live map, here, https://naturescalendar.woodlandtrust.org.uk/analysis/species-and-events-map/?type=5&speciesId=185&eventId=15&year=2026, which allows you to see how the seasons are unfolding. As I’m writing this, I can see on the map numerous first sightings of frogspawn, all from the south-west. Ours in Yorkshire won’t be so very much later, I imagine.

THIS MONTH'S TIP:
Gardening for our amphibians (frogs, toads and newts): These amazing creatures all need water to breed in, so having a garden pond is wonderful. But they actually spend most of their life on land, so it’s really important also to provide habitats which provide shelter, stay damp and provide a good source of insects and slugs. Log and stone piles, long grass, compost heaps and leaf litter are all ideal.

FIVE FASCINATING FACTS ABOUT THE COMMON TOAD
~Toads have an extraordinary sense of direction. Many adults return to their ancestral breeding pond year after year, travelling up to 2 km to get there

~February is the start of this annual migration, with males arriving first and waiting for females to join them

~Froglife organises Toad Patrols https://www.froglife.org/what-we-do/toads-on-roads/ which save thousands of toads every year as they cross roads to reach their breeding pond.

~Toadspawn looks different from frogspawn, which is clumpy; toadspawn looks like long strings which the females wrap around submerged pond plants
~ We’re more likely to see frogs than toads our garden ponds, because toads are so focused on ancestral ponds; but sometimes toads do breed in garden ponds, so keep a look out!

All information from https://www.froglife.org/info-advice/frequently-asked-questions/frogs-toads-in-my-garden/

Enjoy your month of nature spotting! All comments and questions are welcome, as always.

Find out more about our Neighbourhood Nature I-Naturalist project on the website.

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