Frog Rescue on Kilver Beach (or how I was very brave)!

It sounds a bit nerdy but I love hunting for things.  So last weekend when I was told by my B & B host  Lynn at The Old Cider House in Nether Stowey that there were lots of fossils to be found on Kilver beach I was excited.  I know, I know not your average person’s excitement.  It took a little bit of persuading to encourage/bribe Vicky that it was a good idea but a bit of negotiating i.e. she would come for a short walk with Daisie and then read the newspaper in the car off  – we went.

By the way The Old Cider House had scrummy local organic food, wild chickens which might be because they could get in the micro brewery, and a handsome black Labrador called Osborne or Ozy for short.  We now follow @ozythelabrador on twitter. He is quite a good writer really!

A windy chilly perfect Autumn day.  I was in bliss.  Fossils, fossils where are you……. Vicky allocated half an hour on my own to search for fossils.  After five minutes what did I find?  A real live frog in the pebbles.  Not hopping but stretching out those long back legs and walking slowly along the beach.

Big dilemma.  Not keen at all to pick it up, want to look for fossils really but thinking the frog had two very probable outcomes – it would get washed away by the tide or a seagull would have frog legs for tea.  I asked for help in picking it up and was told it was a “sea frog” and to leave  it. Mmmmm.  I was not convinced – a sea frog. Not seen that on Nature Watch or in my guide to British Wildlife.  Asked another person who apologised but not willing to pick it up.

Frog looking at me!

By now the frog had gone on about another three meters across the pebbles and took me to a fossil!  Yes the little blighter helped me out and now I felt morally obliged to rescue it.  In the end with my half hour up and lots of hopping from one foot to the other (me not the frog), I managed to pluck up the courage to pick it up in my scarf.  I clambered over rocks, up a bit off a cliff and along the cliff top to a suitable bit of greenery.  It does not sound very brave now I am writing it down but it was quite a long way and the frog, tweeting all the time and  managed to get out twice.

Today though I feel very proud and pleased with myself.  I found a fossil,  rescued a frog, and confirmed that the UK at least does not have sea frogs.

Isn’t it beautiful?  How the heck did it get there?

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