It’s only in spring and early summer that our Amphibians are found in water, in the rest of the year they live in damp places on land-such as in fields. They all have four legs with webbed feet. To lay their eggs they lay in water, this is called frogspawn which is in clumps like this:

Toad spawn is in strings and newts lay them individually to water plants and they lay 7-12 a day and end up laying 400! All of the eggs hatch and form tadpoles. The tadpoles of frogs and toads eventually lose their tails as they grow up but newts keep them.

There are only 3 species of newt in the U.K, Common or smooth newt; the palmate newt; and the great crested newt, they hibernate in winter. Newts feed on Insects, Worms and slugs.

The only native British frog is the common frog, but two other sorts have been introduced which are the edible and marsh frogs. Frogs hop on land by their powerful hind legs; they can also swim in water using their hind legs and webbed feet.

Toads have shorter legs and warty skin. They crawl rather than hop on land. Two species of toad are the common toad and the natterjack. We don’t have any Natterjack toad in our area as they usually prefer sandy areas.