The common frog (Rana temporaria) is very flexible in its choice of breeding sites - which includes garden ponds.  It is a familiar garden animal and many pond owners derive a great deal of pleasure in observing the frog's life cycle at close hand.

Sometimes unusually coloured common frogs are suspected of being something more exotic (there are some non-native frog species that have been introduced to the UK).  However, if the frogs in your garden produce typical-looking frogspawn, very early in the spring, then they are almost certainly common frogs.

If you are not sure about distinguishing common frogs from common toads, then remember that common frogs have smooth, moist-looking skins.  They jump well.  Common toads, on the other hand, have rough, 'warty' skins, which look dry when the animal is on land.  Toads do not jump as well as frogs.

The spawn produced by common frogs and common toads also looks very different.

Counting clumps of frogspawn gives a reliable estimate of the number of breeding pairs of frogs. Depending where in the country you are, spawning tends to occur in January or February, but it can be as late as March in the north and east and as early as December in the extreme south-west.

The UK Phenology Network records the dates of first appearance of frogspawn.

If you've seen a common frog (or frogspawn) in your garden, then please let us know.

(Photographs courtesy of Fred Holmes and The HCT.)