Quarantine 15, Of Frogs and Mice

The most exciting thing today was observing the brown frogs in my pond. One moment there were no frogs, not even a single one, and the next day they were splashing around, absolutely not convinced of the necessity of social distancing! On the contrary, there were couples as well as threesomes, the males chasing the females and holding on tightly once their hunt was successful.  

 

I checked tonight, and the first spawn was already floating in my pond. I wonder how much it will be this year. After their business is done, the frogs disappear again and they don’t come back till next year. It is a miracle that they always go back to the water in which they themselves started their lives as tiny tadpoles, with hundreds of others. Fortunately, just a few survive and change from tadpole into frog. Perhaps one of the plagues of Egypt was the result of all the frogspawn maturing into full blown frogs. There must have been thousands of them!

 

 

It is still cold, and the water must be freezing. But that does not seem to bother them. I wonder what makes them move: is it the lengthening of the days, more hours of daylight? It can’t be the temperature this year as it has been colder than during our winter.

 

After a walk through the lovely winding streets of my hometown, festively lined with blossoming trees, I came home to find more “wild life”. A mouse, apparently woken from its long hibernation, has discovered my bird feeders. Although the feeders are hanging from my pergola on long chains, that seems to be no impediment for this tiny, cheeky mouse. Perhaps it is time to take the feeders down. There are enough insects now, and I noticed the birds don’t come to feed as often as they used to. Instead they seem to forage among the shrubs, taking tiny insects from among the tender and sprouting leaves. I hope this mouse will stay outside, and I will certainly see to that and take precautions.