Finding frogspawn still stirs some excitement

Common frogs are not especially fussy about where they lay their eggs, but they do follow the same routes to get to spawning areas that have been followed by many generations of their predecessors

Some common frogs spotted recently in Wicklow. Males crowd in around spawning females, each eager to be the one to fertilise the eggs that she pushes out. Picture: Helen Lawless

Finding frogspawn always stirs a little excitement. I am still intrigued at the process by which these bulbous globs of jelly have the capacity to swell, grow tails and then legs, before hopping away as a fully formed frog, equipped to explore life on land. 

The transformation enchanted us at the school ‘nature table’, back when collecting frogspawn was still OK, and fixed a lifelong fascination with frogs for me. We sometimes salvaged frogspawn from puddles at the side of the road or from soggy tractor ruts, ephemeral pools at risk of drying out before the tadpoles have had time enough to transform and hop away.