Threesome + Gangbang

One from yesterday. It was such a beautiful day and the frogs were obviously feeling frisky. There were so many it was hard to separate them. There were anything up to 10 all mating in one bunch. There must have been 100 or more in the pond along with smooth newts. It was certainly a sight to behold.

D300
70-300mm @ 210mm
1/400s
f10
-0.7EV
ISO 1000
Beanbag

Looking at those lumps on the back I think these may be toads but whatever, they all certainly do get a bit carried away at this time of the year.Particularly the males
Good one Maggie.

Phil.

Phil you are right. I should have realised as I photographed some toads in another pond today. Need to brush up on my amphibians

One female and two males, the most I have ever seen is seven males and one female. Many female toads only breed once in a lifetime, whereas males usually try to breed every year. Therefore there are many males competing for each female, leading to scenes like this.

David

Hello Maggie.

Lovely record shot showing the problems these female toads have go through.

Maggie

Now there was me thinking it was the toad conga.

Well captured.

Great capture Maggie, a lovely image.


Phil Newman

This is a sample of what was happening. Thanks David for the info. Very interesting. Hope to learn more about amphibians and reptiles. Your name was mentioned yesterday "with honours" by Alan Shepherd in relation to Slow Worms.

Not seen a toad in my garden in years. I used have a resident which lived in a greenhouse but sadly it vacated it one year and was never seen again. At least from the activity you have depicted here Maggie, Bufo bufo is set to continue in your area for years to come. Two very good images indeed.

PS I've answered your question concerning the 'Bigma'

Wow, i have never seen so many.. works well in pano, would love to see what there faces would look like from the front.


Mark.G