During the recent heat-wave [July 2026] a frog has taken to cooling off in a bird bath.

The bird bath is about 12” diameter and 9” tall. It often has so little water in that there is barely enough to wet the frog’s weskit buttons. I am allowed to top it up, but only if I do so carefully. The frog generally arrives late afternoon or at dusk and will quite often stay in the ‘bird bath’ for over an hour. There is a larger pond at ground level only a few feet away which this frog seems to spurn in favour of a more elevated position from which it can watch the world with a baleful eye. Quite how or why it found this source of water is beyond me, as was how it got in, until all was revealed recently one hot day shortly after noon. I noticed movement near the bird bath. After careful scrutiny through binoculars, I spotted the frog. It takes some spotting!

After due deliberation it launched itself into the Christmas Box [Sarcococca confusa] adjacent to the bird bath.

Surveying its surroundings it contemplated its next move.

It hopped down to a point roughly level with the rim of the bird bath. Part of the frog can just be seen to the right of the bird bath. From there – well, see for yourself

Unlike previous occasions, it spent hardly any time at all in the water. Whether it was too warm for comfort [the temperature in the shade was 26° and the water must have been about the same] or whether it was spooked by something else [there were a lot of birds twittering about on feeders nearby] I don’t know. But it disappeared back under the bush.

STOP PRESS Initially I thought the frog visited the bird bath to cool off, but two days after taking the videos above, the frog was back in the bird bath mid-afternoon and I saw it lunge several times at what I assumed was an insect. With what, if any, success or what the insects were I was unable to observe. Was this merely opportunism or part of a cunning plan? SEE HERE for the probable answer.

Apologies for shoddy camera work etc but I was caught unawares and compelled to film at a distance through dirty double glazing with a hand-held camera. I am going to have to get better at video.