Our partners Pond Conservation & Amphibian & Reptile Conservation and ourselves have joined forces to launch the Big Spawn Count 2012!

from Pond Conservation's website - the Big Spawn Count 2012

'The Big Pond Dip and Thaw surveys have given us a lot of new information about garden ponds. Now we are working with our colleagues at Amphibian and Reptile Conservation (ARC) and Amphibian and Reptile Groups of UK (ARGUK) to find out more about the number of Common Frogs breeding in garden ponds.

Female frogs can produce several thousand eggs bound together in a clump of spawn. Since each female frog usually produces one clump of spawn, it is possible to estimate the numbers of breeding females from the number of spawn clumps. In this first year we are asking you to try out this new survey – which, as it develops, will also give us a crucial insight into the numbers of frogs breeding in garden ponds.

You can take part in our Big Spawn Count by going to your pond and counting the number of spawn clumps present. The timing of spawning depends on temperature, so, although as a rule of thumb spawning starts in the SW England and W Wales in early January, and moves eastwards and northwards, in a warmer year it may be earlier.'

Big Spawn Count online recording form

Twitter - #BigSpawnCount2012