On Thursday evening with some light rainfall I went to my local amphibian spot where hundreds of Common frogs (Rana temporaria) and Palmate newts (Lissotriton helveticus) appear after dark and cross a small road to reach their breeding pond. Despite the small amount of traffic, just one car driving down this road results in many amphibians being killed. So as always I headed on up to move as many as I could before the workers at the nearby 24 hour factory started or finished their shifts and drove by. Wandering around with my torch for about two hours I moved around 50 Common frogs and about 30 Palmate newts. As always there were some casualties but not as many as I’ve seen in previous years. Unfortunately a second Winter looks to move in from this weekend with estimated -5 temperatures for the start of the week. This unusually late cold spell could cause a certain mortality rate with amphibians which have started their reproduction but hopefully it won’t/can’t last for too much longer.

Male Palmate newt (Lissotriton helveticus) (C) Matt Wilson

Male Common frog (Rana temporaria) (C) Matt Wilson

Amplexus pair of Common frogs (Rana temporaria) (C) Matt Wilson

Male Common frog (Rana temporaria) (C) Matt Wilson

Male Palmate newt (Lissotriton helveticus) (C) Matt Wilson

Huge female Common frog (Rana temporaria) bursting with eggs (C) Matt Wilson

One of a small amount of casualties…