American Toad Photos from 2012

[UncleChester]

Some American Toad, Bufo americanus, pictures from last year. This is the only toad species in my immediate area. Most of these were taken in my extended country 'yard'. Click on the photos for a larger size.

We had a thaw and some absurdly warm temperatures last march (high of 28C for the month) that brought the toads out calling. These were from the first time I ever tried to photograph a calling toad, so I was pretty happy with the results. They would stop calling when I approached, but I found that by doing my best toad call, they could be convinced to resume. I had never been this close to a calling toad before, and I found the high pitched, seemingly endless trill to be almost hypnotic at close range:



They are easy to pinpoint when calling of course, but when you get close, the vocal sac deflates, and they will often sink low into the water and try to be inconspicuous (these are two different toads of course):



Unfortunately none of the breeding activity from this March extravaganza was successful as the weather returned to it's usual cold shortly after and wiped out the eggs. This is a risk any very early spring breeder takes. Here are some egg strings from later on in April, along with a Leopard frog that was trying to adopt some toad eggs:



More random toads trying to look inconspicuous. Covering your face with slime is good for the skin, and helps with the camouflage:



I most often found them calling from the water but under clumps of grass or with other overhead obstructions. This will often result in a picture like you see on the left where the toad is in the dark but the grass behind is much brighter as it's in the sunlight. I've started taking a simple 5-in-1 collapsible reflector with me, and using one of the shiny sides to bounce some of the sunlight into the hidey-holes. A small one can be a cheap and versatile camera accessory (~25$) or you can use a piece of tinfoil pasted to something rigid. This has the bonus of working with any kind of camera, no matter how low or high tech. The result here is the photo on the right:



By April, smaller toadlets (from last year) could be found wandering around away from water. This little toad was found in a greenhouse and refused to sit down. It would hop, hop, hop, in the funny toad way and then pause upright on all fours which I found rather odd:



Also in April, a big fatty female toad had taken up residence in the Hostas we had for sale. She tried several other plants, but eventually settled on spending her days in this exact same pot for weeks on end. She always looked unimpressed when disturbed, and we were careful not to sell her:



The next 13 were all from another very productive day in the swamp early in June. More toads calling from secret dark locations. I love the variety of colours they have. In the first picture, the blueish hue of the extended vocal sac is particularly gorgeous and the dark colours of the last two is nicely subtle:



More calling, even by this point I was amazed at how bold they could be with me so close:



I'm certain this guy lost the plot. He seemed to be attempting amplexus with a branch:



More callus-interruptus. They just have wonderful expressions:



Nothing like a back-lit vocal sac to bring out the veins:



Calling out in the open, note the popeye like forearms. If I caused this guy trouble, I'm certain his toadliness would be able to take me down:



Last year was also a summer of drought. By Mid-July, water levels were low and the swamp where I found most of the above toads was bone dry. The early breeding seemed to pay off, as the eggs laid in early June should have had time to hatch and make it to the connected river. The grass was completely brown and dormant at this point, perfect camo for a mottled light tan toad:




Those are my favorites from last year, hope you enjoyed them. I hope to be able to get out at night more this spring and get a few proper amplexus shots. I was usually out in the daytime and found a total of one female being clasped by a male. Unfortunately the female was missing part of her front leg and maybe 40% of her skin, so I'm not keen on showing the disgusting photo of the sad affair or the depraved male toad who didn't seem bothered by this. I'm gonna stop talking now before I say something more disgusting.