aramcheck
Member
Not about caudates, but I guess we all love toads!
One of the main breeding site for the Common Toad (Bufo bufo) in Notts is a pond by a dead end road, you would think that the road being a dead end, it is not that much of a problem, but the road deserve a small commuter village, and a mansion which is now a hotel/conference/weeding venue, and this create a lot of incoming traffic at rush hour, and especially of problem for the migrant toads, the venue is often creating a flux of leaving vehicle around 9.30pm, with catastrophic results, to make matter worst, the pound is in a field grazed by cattle and for 3/4 of its length, the field is separated from the road by 2 feet tall wall!!!
My daughter and myself went on Toad patrol last Friday and Saturday, Friday temps were borderline (about 8c) but it was the first warmish day of this belated spring, and it had rained, so I hoped the toads were as impatient as I was and decided to start moving, at first it looked like I had been wrong, all we found was definitely not some toads, even though they did distract my assistant somewhat:
then as night fell, we fond a single couple in amplexus
my phone camera did not work well in the dark and my wet fingers could not operate the touch screen, but we then found dozen of frogs, maybe 20 toads and a solitary female smooth newt. I was the first time I took my 4 year old daughter to toad patrol, and she was delighted.
Saturday evening, the weather felt a bit colder, but damper, and my daughter had caught the bug and really wanted to come again, the word had come out that the migration had started, and there were maybe a dozen volunteers at the site, and toads came tumbling down the fields and woods onto the road, but this time, very few frogs, my daughter could not believe it and got rather over excited
people were coming back to the pond with bucketful of toads, I lost count but I reckon several hundreds were put into the pond during the two hours we were there!
I am going back next week end and I'll take a good camera...
One of the main breeding site for the Common Toad (Bufo bufo) in Notts is a pond by a dead end road, you would think that the road being a dead end, it is not that much of a problem, but the road deserve a small commuter village, and a mansion which is now a hotel/conference/weeding venue, and this create a lot of incoming traffic at rush hour, and especially of problem for the migrant toads, the venue is often creating a flux of leaving vehicle around 9.30pm, with catastrophic results, to make matter worst, the pound is in a field grazed by cattle and for 3/4 of its length, the field is separated from the road by 2 feet tall wall!!!
My daughter and myself went on Toad patrol last Friday and Saturday, Friday temps were borderline (about 8c) but it was the first warmish day of this belated spring, and it had rained, so I hoped the toads were as impatient as I was and decided to start moving, at first it looked like I had been wrong, all we found was definitely not some toads, even though they did distract my assistant somewhat:
then as night fell, we fond a single couple in amplexus
my phone camera did not work well in the dark and my wet fingers could not operate the touch screen, but we then found dozen of frogs, maybe 20 toads and a solitary female smooth newt. I was the first time I took my 4 year old daughter to toad patrol, and she was delighted.
Saturday evening, the weather felt a bit colder, but damper, and my daughter had caught the bug and really wanted to come again, the word had come out that the migration had started, and there were maybe a dozen volunteers at the site, and toads came tumbling down the fields and woods onto the road, but this time, very few frogs, my daughter could not believe it and got rather over excited
people were coming back to the pond with bucketful of toads, I lost count but I reckon several hundreds were put into the pond during the two hours we were there!
I am going back next week end and I'll take a good camera...
