Just an odd question

[junebug]

Has anyone noticed frogs and toads breeding at.... I dunno.... REALLY odd times? There were tadpoles for whatever my local tree frog is in the meadows near where I live in Oct. of last fall.

The weather on the west coast has been really odd since last summer. Where I live, we got monsoons in July and August, then had a long, warm winter with almost no precipitation. Any thoughts on how this might affect amphibious animals' breeding habits?

[UncleChester]

It could be perfectly normal to have tree frog tadpoles in October. ID the species then look up it's life history. This looks like a good source your your natives, California Frogs and Toads. For example the California Treefrog - Pseudacris cadaverina is said to lay eggs from Feb. to early Oct. so tadpoles in Oct. would be within their norms. Sierran Treefrog - Pseudacris sierra lays from Nov. to July.

Some of the larger Ranids like Bullfrogs may also spend a year or more in the tadpole stage, meaning you can find tadpoles at any time of the year. These types of frogs can't rely on rainy seasons to create vernal pools and stick with more permanent bodies of water and seem to call no matter the weather.

Males of some species, notably Spring Peepers up here, can sometimes be found calling on warm rainy days late in the fall. These never find mates as the females of our northern spring breeding species are more sensibly packing it in before winter hits.

A weak rainy season can end up tough on the species that rely on vernal pools. They either have to move to permanent bodies of water and risk more predators or take a chance on weak temporary pools that may dry up before their offspring make it to land, wiping out their seasons breeding efforts. There's an epic conflict of tiny proportions going on year after year in the breeding pools that's pretty fascination to watch.

[junebug]

*shrug* These frogs have literally up until the weird winter breeding, only bred in spring. I've never seen tadpoles in the fall or winter. A few late bloomers in the summer. I'd have to get a picture of them for a 100% positive ID, only I have a feeling that will be an issue as I've heard that those pools are dry or nearly dry already. Usually they don't dry out at all, but we got so little rain all winter that the water levels actually went down instead of up during what's normally our wettest season.

Anyway, I just thought it was odd, wondered if anyone else had seen similar.