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Tophill Low green frogs: |
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Caleb Forum Coordinator Joined: 17 Feb 2003 No. of posts: 448  View other posts by Caleb |
Posted: 11 Jul 2005 Tophill Low was mentioned here a while ago as a site where green frogs have been seen recently. I visited there yesterday, and saw quite a few of them (apologies for the quality of the photos, most of them were 'digiscoped' through binoculars without a tripod): 
I'm not really experienced enough with these species to ID them properly, though most look like marsh frogs to me, some a bit more like edibles. I did record some calling, I've not had a chance to compare them with known recordings as yet. Also saw common toad (recent metamorphs), crested newt, and grass snake here. I also heard some 'plops' as I was walking along a ditch about 2 miles from the main site, didn't manage to see any frogs there, though. The area is covered in ditches, it seems feasible that the frogs could spread over quite a large area along these. Wycherley, Doran & Beebee's paper mentioned colonies at Swinemoor Common and Hedon in Yorks- these are about 15 and 25 miles respectively from Tophill. It would be interesting to know whether these are all from the same introduction source, and where they occur in between... |
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herpetologic2 Senior Member Joined: 15 Jun 2004 No. of posts: 1369  View other posts by herpetologic2 |
Posted: 12 Jul 2005
Good shots - I would send the recordings to Julia Wycherley as it would be possible to tell if they were 'marsh type' or pool etc just by listerning to the recordings and comparing with others Julia would use the recordings to tell hopefully what species they are - I am sure that she would welcome the records Are there any river /stream corridors to and from the site - these are known as Frog highways - once the frogs are in a river corridor thats it away they go! JC
Vice Chair of ARG UK - self employed consultant - visit ARG UK & Alresford Wildlife |
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Caleb Forum Coordinator Joined: 17 Feb 2003 No. of posts: 448 View other posts by Caleb |
Posted: 12 Jul 2005 JC- The site's based around a water treatment works and reservoir, so there are loads of rivers, ditches, drains & canals round it. The Beverley & Barmston Drain (where I took the second photo above) connects this site directly to Swinemoor Common (incidentally this site is much closer than I thought, more like 5 miles). Yes, I'll contact Julia Wycherley, and see if she's interested. |
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-LAF Senior Member Joined: 03 Apr 2003 No. of posts: 317 View other posts by -LAF |
Posted: 14 Jul 2005 Like Caleb says, the site is connected to an amazing infrastructure of drains and ditches. NBN Gateway has a locality for Edible frogs just a few miles away. Really looking forward to seeing what the conclusions from this are. Lee. (PS: looks like you did a far site better than me there!) Lee Fairclough |
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Waterfrog Member Joined: 13 Feb 2005 No. of posts: 11 View other posts by Waterfrog |
Posted: 15 Jul 2005 I am intrigued at the possible dispersion routes of the water frogs in this area. I first had reports about 4 years ago from the Hedon area. These were Marsh frogs. I now look forward to receiving any recordings from these or any other UK sites. Julia Julia |
- Tophill Low green frogs |