Frog on the Lily Pad (gouache style)

The common frog is Britain's most widespread frog, with smooth, damp skin that ranges from olive and brown to yellow or even pinkish. Look for the dark patch behind each eye and the barred markings on its long back legs. Frogs leap, while toads have dry, warty skin and tend to crawl. Frogspawn is laid in rounded clumps, whereas toads lay theirs in long strings wound around pond plants.

Frogs head back to ponds early in the year, usually in February or March, and a single garden pond can hold dozens of spawn clumps. Tadpoles grow through spring, and tiny froglets leave the water in early summer, so it's worth leaving long grass near the edge for cover. A shallow, sloping side lets them in and out, and fish are best left out. Don't move spawn between ponds, since that can spread disease, and avoid slug pellets.

This frog sits on a lily pad beside a pink water lily, with yellow marsh marigolds close by. It's a calm moment, the frog resting at the surface among the plants that make a pond work for wildlife. Showing it out in the open gives a clear view of an animal many people first meet in a garden pond.