Frog
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Mr Badger
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That's not a frog, it's a common toad (Bufo bufo), looks like a male too. Nice photos too, they really bring out the colour in its eyes.
Looking again at the background, that plant looks like Australian swamp stonecrop/New Zealand Pygmyweed (Crassula helmsii). If so it's very invasive and can be spread by fragments sticking to footwear, etc. So don't go into the water or around the banks where it might be growing (it grows on damp ground as well as in water) as you don't want to cause it to spread. It's probably worth you telling one of the site rangers/wardens about it so they can check it out to see if it is. They may know about it already, but better safe than sorry. Just thought I mention this so you don't inadvertently cause it to spread.
Looking again at the background, that plant looks like Australian swamp stonecrop/New Zealand Pygmyweed (Crassula helmsii). If so it's very invasive and can be spread by fragments sticking to footwear, etc. So don't go into the water or around the banks where it might be growing (it grows on damp ground as well as in water) as you don't want to cause it to spread. It's probably worth you telling one of the site rangers/wardens about it so they can check it out to see if it is. They may know about it already, but better safe than sorry. Just thought I mention this so you don't inadvertently cause it to spread.
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Oh, thanks for that. How do you tell the difference between a frog and toad? I do think that they are aware of the plant as they've been removing it, luckily the reserve has a boardwalk through the middle of it, which I was lying on to take these.
Mr Badger
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I'm glad you stuck to the boardwalk, Crassula has become a huge problem where it has escaped into the wild, I don't know of a single site where they've managed to get rid of it permanently after it's taken a hold. Some smaller sites have even resorted to filling a pond in completely and digging a new one somewhere else if the plant is found there! Not an easy option either, as it can be spread by the machinery that's needed to do this!
It's not the plant's fault though, as it shouldn't be here in the first place - humans again I'm afraid! It was brought over by plant collectors and later sold by plant stockists and garden centres for use in garden ponds. Trouble is, it can grow like wildfire and can be spread by just a tiny part of it being introduced into wet ground (by animals as well as people). Anyway, enough of that depressing story and back to frogs and toads...
Common frogs tend to have fairly smooth and (even when on land) moist looking skin, and often have a 'bandit-like' eye mask extending back from the body side of their eye along the side of their head, with the outline of a round ear-drum vaguely visible within that dark eye-mask patch. They have long, powerful back legs and can jump quite long distances. They lay clumps of spawn in the spring in ponds, ditches and other suitable (and not so suitable!) places.
Toads have a warty, granular looking skin (that can look quite dry when they're on land), they have shorter back legs than our common frog and don't jump as well - often crawling to move around on land, and they have a more rounded snout than the common frog. They also have quite prominent glands on either side of their head, almost like a continuation of their upper eyelid/eyebrow - you can see this in your photos. These glands contain toxins to deter predators. I once had a cat that caught a toad, she ended up salivating and drooling almost like she was foaming at the mouth after the effects of the toxins. Unfortunately the toad was dead but she never chose to kill another one! So it seems like it's quite an effective defence mechanism for the species as a whole.
Toads lay strings of spawn in the spring, usually wrapping the strings round the submerged roots of marginal pond vegetation. It's quite easy to see frogspawn, but you usually need to know what you're looking for to see the submerged and more hidden strings of toadspawn (a UK internet search should produce some photos of what I'm on about!). Common toads also seem to prefer bigger, deeper waterbodies in which to breed than common frogs do. Despite the popular northern myth, common toads aren't usually bigger than a common frog. Adult male toads are usually smaller, and an adult female toad is usually no bigger than an adult common frog.
If you look at the ARG UK website or ARC Trust website (or both) I'm sure they'll have a guide on how to tell the difference between common frogs and toads, so you can 'get your eye in'. I hope this is useful to you and thanks for caring about wildlife; sadly frog and toad numbers (along with our newts and native reptiles such as grass snake, adder, smooth snake, common lizard, sand lizard and slow worm) still appear to be declining in number, so need all the help and public support they can get to try to stop this decline.
Sadly (perhaps because they're not covered in fur and look cute like a red squirrel or otter), it seems they're often well down the line when it comes to public support and sympathy... but just look at the golden-coloured detail in those eyes in your photographs, what an amazing little animal it is.
It's not the plant's fault though, as it shouldn't be here in the first place - humans again I'm afraid! It was brought over by plant collectors and later sold by plant stockists and garden centres for use in garden ponds. Trouble is, it can grow like wildfire and can be spread by just a tiny part of it being introduced into wet ground (by animals as well as people). Anyway, enough of that depressing story and back to frogs and toads...
Common frogs tend to have fairly smooth and (even when on land) moist looking skin, and often have a 'bandit-like' eye mask extending back from the body side of their eye along the side of their head, with the outline of a round ear-drum vaguely visible within that dark eye-mask patch. They have long, powerful back legs and can jump quite long distances. They lay clumps of spawn in the spring in ponds, ditches and other suitable (and not so suitable!) places.
Toads have a warty, granular looking skin (that can look quite dry when they're on land), they have shorter back legs than our common frog and don't jump as well - often crawling to move around on land, and they have a more rounded snout than the common frog. They also have quite prominent glands on either side of their head, almost like a continuation of their upper eyelid/eyebrow - you can see this in your photos. These glands contain toxins to deter predators. I once had a cat that caught a toad, she ended up salivating and drooling almost like she was foaming at the mouth after the effects of the toxins. Unfortunately the toad was dead but she never chose to kill another one! So it seems like it's quite an effective defence mechanism for the species as a whole.
Toads lay strings of spawn in the spring, usually wrapping the strings round the submerged roots of marginal pond vegetation. It's quite easy to see frogspawn, but you usually need to know what you're looking for to see the submerged and more hidden strings of toadspawn (a UK internet search should produce some photos of what I'm on about!). Common toads also seem to prefer bigger, deeper waterbodies in which to breed than common frogs do. Despite the popular northern myth, common toads aren't usually bigger than a common frog. Adult male toads are usually smaller, and an adult female toad is usually no bigger than an adult common frog.
If you look at the ARG UK website or ARC Trust website (or both) I'm sure they'll have a guide on how to tell the difference between common frogs and toads, so you can 'get your eye in'.
I hope this is useful to you and thanks for caring about wildlife; sadly frog and toad numbers (along with our newts and native reptiles such as grass snake, adder, smooth snake, common lizard, sand lizard and slow worm) still appear to be declining in number, so need all the help and public support they can get to try to stop this decline.Sadly (perhaps because they're not covered in fur and look cute like a red squirrel or otter), it seems they're often well down the line when it comes to public support and sympathy... but just look at the golden-coloured detail in those eyes in your photographs, what an amazing little animal it is.
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