What to look for at Railway Fields in March: Frogs and newts return to the pond

This is the time of year that frogs will return to their home ponds to breed.

Hopefully you may see frogspawn in our pond. Female frogs lay their eggs in distinctive jelly-like rafts, each containing up to 2,000 eggs. These clusters float on the pond’s surface but are quite popular with local ducks. 

If you see frogs in the street or Harringay Passage, carefully remove them from danger (don't handle them too long as our hands feel very hot to them) but leave them in the vicinity. They are just trying to get home.

Over the coming weeks, depending on local weather conditions, the eggs will develop and hatch into tadpoles. Warmer temperatures speed up development, while colder spells may slow things down

(Please don’t feel tempted to take any for your pond or add any. This can upset the natural balance of the pond and also spread disease and invasive plants).

Palmate and smooth newts may already be well into their breeding season by March. Their courtship involves an elaborate and rather charming ‘dance’ performed by the male to attract a mate (take a look on YouTube).

Once mating has taken place, female newts carefully lay their eggs individually, wrapping each one inside the leaf of a pond plant for protection. Both palmate and smooth newts can lay up to 300 eggs in a single season.

We often find newts in the pond at Railway Fields when we explore it with the school groups that visit.

You may notice that volunteers have built hibernaculum around the site for our amphibian and reptile populations to find winter shelter.

Find out how to support frogs, newts and toads at Froglife