Rove Beetle

Interesting little fellow this lad

Larvae

Goat Willow

Early Willow buds hairy for the spring chill. I guess the buds do look like they have Goat hair on them also. But i did look into why they are called Goat Willow, two ideas were; as willow is so suitable for coppicing Goats found it very easy and tasty to eat them and another is Goat Moths lay their eggs in the trees.

Tipperary Frog

Cabragh wetlands outside Thurles is the place to go to view Frogs at the moment. In the front pond there could well be 60 individuals all fighting for the chance to mate, and by the amount of spawn there already many have. However it seams predation is impacting them aswell, as at least 6 have croaked it and are half eaten on the bank.

Frog predation

In this one area there were 5 half eaten frogs. I'm curious to find out what went on here and what predator was responsible. Surely Foxes and Badgers would have just eaten them whole. So was it our house Cats or perhaps Kestrels or Peregrines which iv'e seen around also. Any ideas? All frogs I found were eat from the head down with their back legs and lower body left.

Frog Spawn

Apparently it only takes 10 seconds for a female frog to lay a clump of eggs and there can be up to 2000 eggs in each clump. The NPWS are running a frog survey at the moment so get out there and start recording. http://www.npws.ie/en/CurrentResearchProjects/AnimalSpecies/Other/ .The info you submit adds vital data to build up a picture of the distrubtion of frogs in Ireland. About 1 third of amphibians across the globe are in danger of extiction. Numbers in Britain have dramatically declined also in the last 20 years. A chytrid fungus appears to be the main cause, but habitat destruction and water quality play a vital role in the little frogs demise.

Goldfinch Tag

A pink tag (num 6 or 9) is on this Goldfinch.

Greenfinch

Goldfinch

Four Goldfinch finally showed up for the niger seed.