Another thing I miss: discovery (and toads!)

Yesterday I posted butterfly photos from summer 2007 to give myself a reminder of what's coming in the next few months -- this cold can't last forever. Today I continue with that look back to highlight one of the things that I miss most about not being out in the garden: discovery!

In late May 2009 my morning garden walk revealed a toad in my stream. I watched and photographed him for quite a long time, ending up with what are some of my favorite photos ever. Here's a brief review of that morning.

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Clearly he was attracted to the running water with a purpose, as he was calling quite regularly:

Remember that this was back before I had my pond, so seeing and hearing toads calling for mates was not common yet for me. This was the only permanent water source in my yard as well, and it is too small to accommodate more than a single pair of toads I think.

After a while he climbed out of the water...

...into an even more photogenic location:

Eventually he left, and that's when I realized that I had missed the main event, and that the water was full of toad egg strands:

Realizing that this was not an ideal place for tadpoles to mature, I scooped up some of the eggs...

...and raised them in a bucket indoors.

The thought of doing this now makes me laugh, as the pond is a toad tadpole machine that produces hundreds of the little things each year.

If you want to read the full story of the toads, with more photos of the tadpoles and resulting little toadlings, you'll find that here.



Just think, in three months or less I'll be hearing toad calls again...

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