We’ve been in our current home since 1998 and that spring I filled the garden pond having carefully found new homes for the frog spawn and the resident frogs (neighbours with ponds, basically), we had tiny children it had to be done. The next year, some of the frogs re-appeared, nothing odd there, they were presumably looking for their aquatic love nest. It was always nice to see a few hopping among the herbaceous borders. I assume they aren’t leaving and coming back they just hide themselves away, hibernating from autumn to spring as the species is wont to do.
I took photos of some them back in the day when I was still using a film camera, then I moved on to digital and carried on snapping the amphibian visitors…each year. We’ve been down to just one visitor – a European common frog (Rana temporaria) – each summer now, same little creature each time. I’ve got a digital photo of it from March 2003 and several from subsequent years. It has the same markings (although obviously it’s looking a lot older now! LOL. There is evidence that some frogs can live between 4 and 15 years, although difficult to tag, ring or chip and pin frogs I’d have thought. This could very well be a gerontological specimen of the equivalent in human years of 100 years. Maybe I should contact the local wildlife trust or the Queen, so she can send her traditional 100th birthday telegram.