Toad-a-Palooza
Viewer Discretion Advised!
Photos and videos by Patty Duhon
After the days of toad “busy-ness,” we sat out on the back porch drinking our morning coffee and watched a lone toad slowly hop toward the front. I’m sure I heard it saying, “My work here is done.”
Patty Duhon, Hays County Master Naturalist
I’m always happy to see our Humm arrive in my inbox. The articles are often fascinating, and the pictures are gorgeous. As I read through the July issue, I was thrilled to find Totally Toads, a piece by Betsy Cross and Lee Ann Linam! I read it and knew I had to contact Betsy to share my experiences with my own toad population explosion in early May. Later that morning, I sent her the following texts, which resulted in a rather lengthy exchange:
P—Good morning, Betsy! I lay in bed this morning reading the Humm and really enjoyed your article on toads. We too experienced an increase in our toad population, from seeing one or two a year to a mate-fest during a 3-4 day breeding season. My first clue was finding several dead toads in one of our pool skimmer baskets! (insert crying emoji). I built a get-out place after that using my step ladder and a towel draped over the pool steps.
P—The next evening the chorus started. We had 3 males perched around our fish pond, which is about six feet from the pool, singing their little hearts out. In the background, males were pouncing on females, females were side-stepping their advances, couples were swimming among the water lilies—rather the FEMALES were swimming for their lives while the males clung to their backs [insert disgusted emoji]—and we ended up with THOUSANDS of eggs, then hundreds of tadpoles in our little pond. I’m going to send you video clips and pics I took during that short time to share our surprise and delight in the whole process. Thanks for the great article!
B—Hi, Patty! Thanks so much for the info! That’s an awesome video. I would love to post that sometime. Are those the toads that are calling so loudly? So cool!
P—The next video shows my get-out place and the leavings of one toad couple I caught “being busy” in the towel—Ewwww…
B—LOL!!! Yes, try to send it.
P—The pictures are the eggs from the pool that I gathered and put in the pond.
B—Holy mackerel!! That’s amazing! We need to do a follow up article.
P—Martin had remarked the day before all this started that he had seen a toad at the front of the house. There’s very little water there. After the days of toad “busy-ness,” we sat out on the back porch drinking our morning coffee and watched a lone toad slowly hop toward the front. I’m sure I heard it saying, “My work here is done.”
Four-frog-frenzy!
My great takeaways from this experience
Expect the unexpected! We had NO idea we had this number of toads in the area! We will be prepared next spring with a toad get-out to prevent the tragic deaths of more of our amphibian neighbors.
Find your Nature Nerd Friends! Mary O’Hara often talks about our “tribe.” Betsy is a new member of my tribe. We’ve since talked and laughed about NUMEROUS nature experiences we share, and I hope to be sharing more. I credit The Hays Humm with connecting these two Nature Nerds!
Thanks, Humm staff! Please keep up the great work!!