Not sure what to do? Want to explore the local wildlife and don’t know where to start? Like frogs? Carry on reading and share!
Fed up of the queue to West Wittering Beach?! (Yes, you and the rest of us!) Here is a quiet alternative which is great for children too!
Have a walk along a wide shingle beach (you can swim too, the water is tolerable and you won’t have a fight to get to it..) topped with sea cabbage, yellow horned poppies and sea spinach whilst you look out to sea or inland to Pagham Harbour Nature Reserve.
Start from East Beach car park at Selsey. Pay and display. Mount the walkway and turn left, away from Selsey Bill and the lifeboat station.
Follow the coast, and either go along Park Copse Lane or once the little cottages / holiday homes have run out, then walk inland, over the shingle brow…
You will find a large brackish lagoon surrounded by tall reeds before you get to the main Pagham Harbour. It is in amongst the reeds that the Marsh Frogs (Pelophylax ridibundus) can be heard calling to each other!
It is the males which call. Once one starts it has ripple effect round the pond! They also have 2 distinct calls… and are GREEN not brown like our Common Frog.
Marsh Frogs on audio and video.
Marsh Frogs at Pagham on Video
The frogs are about the size of the edible frog and their diet consists of dragonflies and other insects, spiders, earthworms, and slugs.
Marsh frogs like to spend all their time in, or within jumping distance of, water. Both powerful swimmers and amazing jumpers, they often just stand in the mud, ready to leap into deep water at the first sign of trouble and landing with a resounding plop.
They are robust and warty members of the green frog group, have a laughing call and a talent for singing whose quality is judged by females waiting to mate. Europe’s largest native frog (reaching 17cm long) are now enlarging their range, partly naturally but mostly through being sold for garden ponds.
They were introduced to Britain in 1030!
Want to stay and hear these little chaps for yourself – bring all the family too?
Call Gayle on 07769 746113 for bookings or questions.
© Chichester Self Catering June 2017
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