Frogs return to Lochloy quarry
I found the quarry ponds on Lochloy Road the summer after moving in, and they were filled with frogspawn.
I love amphibians, having kept ponds on and off since childhood to create living space for frogs, toads, and newts.
I was building a pond in the front garden at the time, and in finding the Lochloy Quarry, I took a few buckets of water, flora, mud, and frogspawn.
While my own pond developed, I also kept an eye at those at the quarry.
Oddly, they contained three types of tadpole – common frog, common toad – and a smaller number of far larger tadpoles that I’d never seen before and couldn’t identify.
However, after that summer the work on the Kylauren site began in earnest – not simply the flats, but also landscaping the tree walks around. The land, being reshaped, was devastated, and I was duly concerned for the amphibians.
I didn’t see any spawn or tadpoles the following year, and I didn’t find any this year.
I was genuinely concerned the local populations of frogs and toads had been severely impacted by the digging works, and was worrying about how long it would take them to recover.
However, clearing out my pond today, I returned some of the over grown fauna to the quarry ponds and was delighted to find froglets there.
Curiously, many still had their tails, which suggests they were spawned/developed later than normal. But it is quite a relief to see signs of them breeding again.
So, it’s great to see amphibian life in the Lochloy quarries again, and I’m sincerely hoping that with most of the nearby building work finished that next spring should see an abundance of amphibian life there again.
However, I’m definitely going to be keeping an eye out for the strange tadpoles I saw before, and if possible, capture a few so I can see what they develop into. Because they certainly didn’t look from any amphibian species that is supposed to live in any part of the UK, let alone this small part of Scotland.
In the meantime, I’ve added to this post a couple of pics of my little froglets and toadlets as they leave my own pond. 
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I miss our garden pond and my nocturnal trips to frog watch in the garden.
Nice to see your interest in ponds and the wildlife they produce. So many of the ponds I used to spend hours in as a kid have disappeared to development without a thought. More power to diversity and the pond makers !