Going to be a lot of frogs this year

[andybarton]

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if the winter doesn't come back an kill all the spawn.

 

There were dozens in this small stretch of brook

 

R8/DMR/90 (cropped)

 

[ATTACH]27257[/ATTACH]

[biglouis]

Fantastic picture, Andy. Terrific details and tones.

 

LouisB

[elansprint72]

Ribbit.

[telyt]

Tells a great story, Andy. Did you try any with a polarizing filter to reduce the reflection of the sky? The reflections pull my eye away from the egg masses.

[JE]

Nicely captured. It bring Seamus Heaney's poem "Death of a Naturalist"to mind.

 

DEATH OF A NATURALIST

 

All year the flax-dam festered in the heart

Of the townland; green and heavy headed

Flax had rotted there, weighted down by huge sods.

Daily it sweltered in the punishing sun.

Bubbles gargled delicately, bluebottles

Wove a strong gauze of sound around the smell.

There were dragon-flies, spotted butterflies,

But best of all was the warm thick slobber

Of frogspawn that grew like clotted water

In the shade of the banks. Here, every spring

I would fill jampotfuls of the jellied

Specks to range on window-sills at home,

On shelves at school, and wait and watch until

The fattening dots burst into nimble-

Swimming tadpoles. Miss Walls would tell us how

The daddy frog was called a bullfrog

And how he croaked and how the mammy frog

Laid hundreds of little eggs and this was

Frogspawn. You could tell the weather by frogs too

For they were yellow in the sun and brown

In rain.

Then one hot day when fields were rank

With cowdung in the grass the angry frogs

Invaded the flax-dam; I ducked through hedges

To a coarse croaking that I had not heard

Before. The air was thick with a bass chorus.

Right down the dam gross-bellied frogs were cocked

On sods; their loose necks pulsed like sails. Some hopped:

The slap and plop were obscene threats. Some sat

Poised like mud grenades, their blunt heads farting.

I sickened, turned, and ran. The great slime kings

Were gathered there for vengeance and I knew

That if I dipped my hand the spawn would clutch it.

 

S.H.

 

 

Jonathan

[darkness30]

Andy nice catch and i agree it would look even better without that distracting reflection

 

Thanks for sharing

 

Mehmet

[andybarton]

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Thanks folks.

 

Unfortunately, I didn't have my polariser with me yesterday...

[robert_parker]

He looks Grumpy - nice use of colour and composition from a difficult angle, Andy

[andybarton]

He shouldn't be grumpy, judging by what he was doing only 30 seconds before I took his picture

[robert_parker]

No wonder there's a lot of bubbles....

[abrewer]

Gosh you must have been really close to get this shot Andy.

 

Nice catch (pardon the pun!)

 

Thanks.

 

Allan