The frogs are marching one by one hurrah..hurrah...

Well actually they are marching two by two! During this time of year the frogs and toads and other amphibians are making their way to lakes and ponds to mate and lay their eggs. Here in Germany the people are very concerned about making sure the little critters make it there alive, and since many need to cross busy highways to get to the water there are all sorts of fences and speed zones and even tunnels built to accomplish this. The website for our area says that there are 21 different kinds of amphibians here and 14 are on the list of threatened species. They say that if there are 60 cars going by every hour they are likely to kill 90 percent of the frogs trying to make it across the road. There is a group called NABU that organizes groups of volunteers all over the country to walk along the fences and collect up the frogs in buckets and help them across the road. I haven't been able to get a photo of any frogs this year, but I read on another website that the weird weather we have had this year has caused the numbers of frogs collected by the workers to be way down. Here is a photo of the frog fence just outside our town though.