Last Wednesday, 25 February, I made my first visit to Cosmeston Lakes Country Park in a couple of weeks and, while I was there, I checked out the dipping pond, thinking I might find frogs and/or frog spawn.

Instead, I found toads, tens, maybe hundreds of toads, writhing and slithering, males gripping on to the backs of females in their annual orgy to ensure the survival of their species; females clinging to pieces of vegetation as they exuded from their bodies the long strings of eggs that in 10 to 12 days will produce miniscule tadpoles … unless hungry birds get to them first.

Yet, even if the birds do find themselves a feast, toads produces so many eggs that I’m fairly positive that if I visit this same pond around the same time next year, the toads will be back and doing it all over again.