As any visitor to the Weird Weekend over the past few years will know, one of my late father's friends often makes an appearance. He is the Rev. Gerald Smith who was once the Vicar of the South Pole. Honest!OK he was actually the RAF Chaplain to the garrison on the Falkland Islands, and as part of his flock he ministered to the British Antarctic Territory - a peripetetic community of about 200 scientists and military bods - who have been there on and off since Britain claimed sovreignty over part of the southernmost continent in 1908.
However, he is a very interesting chap with a feast of interesting stories to tell, and he and his wife Ann always come to the Weird Weekend Cocktail Party where they drink my champagne like it was going out of fashion and generally have
a jolly good time
However, he is also a keen nature photographer, and sends me lots of images that he thinks may be of interest. Like these..
He knows of my interest in the stories of bright yellow, and even golden frogs in the Devon countryside, and he sent me these pictures that he took on friday of two common frogs in amplexus in his garden, with a note commenting on the marked colour difference between them
This has actually made me decide to bring a long standing project of mine back to the fore. The colour variations on British frogs are so great that we think that it is about time that they were documented, so this spring, can you all please get your digital cameras out and photgraph as many different froggies of differing sizes, markings and colouration as you can. Email tjhem to me with locality notes and we shall post them on a dedicated section of the CFZ website...
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