Our recent weather has meant that many of you are already reporting frogs arriving in ponds – some of you already have frogspawn.

As days get longer and temperatures become milder, ponds give off a pheromone that wafts across the landscape and wakes up hibernating toads, frogs and newts. Under the cover of darkness on damp evenings, they head to their breeding ponds to find a mate.

Over 80 per cent of toads return to the ponds they were born in; the loss of ponds across our landscape has resulted in a decline in toad numbers.

To reach the remaining ponds, many make dangerous journeys across roads so please take care if you’re driving at dusk or at night. In the right conditions, entire colonies of toads will move from hibernation sites to their breeding ponds over the course of a few days.

Traditional orchard project in Three Counties

They move on damp mild nights from February to April and in some populations this can mean more than 1,000 toads moving over a very short period of time.

In Worcestershire, most movement tends to be in the first two weeks of March but this is dependent on the weather. One of the greatest hazards to this movement of toads is the traffic on our roads. Many hibernating sites are now cut off from the breeding ponds by a network of roads.

Toadspawn is laid in strings whereas frogspawn is found in clumps. If you're lucky enough to have some in your pond, don't worry about there being 'too much' – you won't be over-run because on average only five froglets or toadlets will make it to adulthood!

Moving spawn from one place to another can spread diseases so please don't be tempted to do this.

Please check worcswildlifetrust.co.uk/species/toad for more details.