Kermit calls in spring!

I know when spring is really here when I can hear the low croaking of a pond of frogs. I have photographed frogs many times over the years and I still get a great buzz when I spend a few hours in their delightful company. As my cameras evolve, or more likely as I fall into Canons trap of continuously upgrading their bodies I find that I am drawn back to working with old friends. Luckily this year I learnt of a super garden pond at a friends where the frogs proved to be the most obliging of any I have ever worked with. I also decided that I wanted to try a few new things so I devoted two days last week at poolside.

Both days had great light and dawned bright but cold. I thought the spawning period might be over but there were several pairs still in amplexus even though there was a fair amount of spawn already present. Usually frogs head to the muddy depths when a predator or human towers onto the scene. Here the frogs did take a cursory dive but quickly returned to their lusty croaking at the surface. Perhaps the reduced availability of potential mates had something to do with the male’s rapid rise back to the hectic ponds surface layers.

I only witnessed one mating ball where 8 or 9 males had forgotten their etiquette and grasped onto the backs of other males who were all trying to grasp onto a single red female. These fascinating, yet potentially killer mating masses are amazing things to witness yet in the viewers mind there is the welfare of the poor female to be considered. I suspect that few of the females actually die, it would be a tragic way to go yet I still break the photographer’s code and intervene if I think she may be at risk.

At the end of my 2 sessions all the frogs had spawned so the action was really over for another year. I was quite pleased with some of my images, and as always I wanted to spend more time perfecting my techniques, so role on spring 2015!