Clumps of frog spawn in local pools

Spring is well underway here in Donegal, and frogs have been busy producing frog spawn for around 2 weeks now.  I always feel such JOY when I see their clumps of eggs in water pools along my regular walking route.

They remind me of my childhood, when I used to collect frog spawn in a jam jar of water, to take to school.  My classmates and I deposited our collections into a fish tank in the classroom, delighting when the eggs eventually hatched into tadpoles with little tails. These tadpoles morphed into tiny frogs, which we released into the wild once again.

I do not know if children still collect frog spawn today, and wonder if it would have been kinder to leave the eggs in their original birthplace?

I do know that Nature is a remarkable teacher, and my love of the outdoors grew from those early insights into frogs and their offspring…