I'm a mother!

After my post about the tadpoles and the efts, look what was hopping around my garden yesterday.

This tiny little creature, no bigger than my fingernail, hopped onto a rock in the bog garden and obligingly let me photograph him.

What astounds me so much is the speed of his development compared to the tadpoles that are still in the pond. Admittedly they are large tadpoles but they are mostly still blobs with a tail. This little chap, and the five more that I saw later, are perfect fully formed froglets, and weeks ahead in the development stakes.

This next pictures shows just how tiny he is.

What this means is that it takes me about ten minutes to get to the greenhouse because I now have to tread very carefully when I go past the ponds. These froglets are more than precious to me and I don't know what I'd do if I trod on one.

Still, my piece of the planet is live with frogs and newts and I'll take all the care in the world if it helps these marvellous, so often overlooked, little creatures.