Country diary: A race against time for this thick broth of frogspawn

Finstown, Orkney: It appeared almost overnight in a location that is neither safe nor salubrious for such early lifeThings change fast this time of year. One moment it feels like summer, the next like deepest winter. New migrants arrive every day. One morning this week I found that the muddy area by the gate in the horses' field had morphed overnight into a thriving colony of common frogs. What had been a marshy, trampled patch of wet ground was now heaving with life; the standing water had become a thick broth of frogspawn, gelatinous and quivering in an unhealthy khaki green.At first I couldn't see the frogs themselves, but as I clattered by, headcollar in hand, they revealed themselves: glossy and dark, palm-sized, moving with deliberate slowness, concealed up to their necks. Continue reading...