Of all the things I had to do this morning, using my poor fieldcraft skills to sneak up on frogs wasn’t necessarily top of the list. However, this frog bonanza only happens once a year and I have a new grown-up camera that I wanted to start to get to know and so this was a good opportunity.

The whole pond was purring rather than croaking and it was a spectacle for the ears as well as the eyes. But these guys are food for so many things, they need to be extremely wary and their bulbous eyes give them a fantastic field of view. Meaning that when they spot an amateur naturalist advancing upon them, they are gone under in a shot.

However, here are my best shots:

Additional excitement today was provided by a new species being spotted feeding under the bird table. Its the 60th species that has been seen in or from the meadows – a Brambling.

 

A very distinctive bird that will be returning soon to Scandinavia. It tends to hang around with Chaffinches but could never be mistaken for one. All the above photos were taken by a trail camera but tomorrow I will set up the mobile hide and lurk within to see if it is back so that I can give my new camera another whirl.

Our cameras were tested to their very limits trying to get good shots of the Pheasant and his wives who were contentedly pecking around the hedgerows this afternoon:

Splendid birds.