Spot the pond's thawed out (6)
I believe the answer is:
notice
'spot' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'the pond's thawed out' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'the' could be 't' (the is pronounced as a 't' sound in some dialects) and 't' is found within the answer.
The remaining letters 'noice' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for notice that I've seen before include "warning to quit" , "Advance information" , "Observe - written announcement" , "This is usually given before quitting job" , "Advance warning of an event" .)