One area of Ashford can expect a population explosion in a few months time.

The ponds at The Warren are currently teeming with frogspawn.

After winter hibernation most frogs return to the pond of their birth in the spring to mate and produce spawn.

The males head back first to the pond where they were produced and try to attract the females to them by croaking.

Pairs then mate in shallow areas of the pond among plant growth.

Each female usually produces one clump of spawn in a season, usually in warm days in March.

They produce lumps about the size of a tennis ball made up of jelly and eggs, laid on shallow shelf areas which will swell to grapefruit size as they mature and float to the surface.

Many merge to look like one large mat of jelly.

To allow for huge losses, the adult female lays several thousand eggs. Around three weeks after spawning, the tadpoles hatch before growing into frogs.

These splendid pictures of frogs and toads were taken at The Warren near the Drovers Roundabout and at a pond near Ashford Rugby Club by Ashford photographer Andy Clark.

Andy offered the following advice if you want to capture such close-up images.

He said: “I use a 600mm lens, but if you have a garden pond then 300mm is probably plenty.

“A good point-and-shoot camera would be ample, in a garden. But, keep back from the edge of the pond, even in a garden.”