Frogs and Frogspawn

The last few weeks have been a busy time for my local frog populations. A large number of frogs congregated in the corner of a local pond and, judging from the amount of frogspawn, it looked like they had been busy. However on my third visit, which was only a couple of days after my second visit, there wasn't a frog to be seen. It seems they had declared the mating season over and dispersed. This was a shame as I was planning to take a number of further images including some with a wider lens. They will have to wait until next year...

Here are a few that I've processed already. There may be one or two more in due course.

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A Common Frog surrounded by frogspawn (400mm lens with extension tubes):

A close up of the frogspawn itself:

I liked the patterns in the water in this next image:

and finally another image similar to the first:

Spring Ladybirds

There have been quite a few ladybirds in my garden over the last couple of weeks, far more than last year in fact. Most are Seven-Spots but I have also seen a Ten-Spotted ladybird, something I've only ever seen on occasions. I've yet to see a Harlequin ladybird which is quite reassuring given how rapidly this alien invader seems to be overtaking the Seven Spot in many parts of the country.

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Here are a couple of images of the Ten-Spotted Ladybird:

 and finally a mating pair of Seven-Spotted Ladybirds: