I promised you some wet photos this weekend.
At first glance the toad above seemed ungainly. Then I realized it was two toads--two toads in love. They're graceful, considering. You don't see toad sex every day. Well, maybe you do, but I don't.
What is the result of toad love? That would be a tadpole. Or many tadpoles.
I took this photo 12 days after the first one, at the same catch basin at Hahamongna Watershed Park. I took both photos before last week's rain. I hope this week we'll find thousands of baby toads.
31 comments:
Holy cow! That's a lot of babies! ; )
"Froggie went a courtin' and he did ride, uh-huh . . . "
First time I heard them doing.. babies, I thought one was killing another, very loud musical affair.
Oh, I say! This is getting a little racy, Petrea.
Is there a YouTube link for that? ;-)
Love this. Fell about over my morning coffee. I remember the cane toads when I lived in Queensland and the racket they made when looking for a mate. Even a tiny frog who lives in a plant pot on my terrace here, makes enough noise to make you think there's a whole tribe of them.
These two were totally silent at the moment I photographed them, but perhaps their courting, which I missed, was a "loud musical affair" (great phrase, Irina).
Mister Earl, I don't think I want to see that video.
How many of you are going to have Dina's song in your head all day?
Should this post get the UNSAFE FOR WORK tag?
Maybe so, Ben. That top photo is pretty hot.
wow! with recent events, lets hope the new crew can count all their toes.
"Campbell's Soup!"
—R. Brautigan
The coyotes will have had some, but they can't eat them all.
Irina, "Heard them doing...babies." Love that. I can't wait to use it, although I can't imagine where I will.
Haha! Crazy froggy sex. I'm blushing.
More babies than Octomum! I expect the egrets are having a feast. Hope the tadpoles have turned into baby toads by the time the pond dries out. Thank goodness for this late rain.
By the way, the photo of the mating toads was a big hit with the folks on the Hahamongna Tour, Petrea.
Ahem. Sorry to be unsentimental, but they are not in love. It's just a one day stand.
Sid: have to move back into an apartment, or go to a hotel.
Hiker, we're all embarrassed.
Glad they liked the photo, Bellis. I took it March 4th. The tadpole shot is from 3/12. There should be baby toads by now. I'll check soon.
Burst my bubble, Kelly.
So lovely!!!!!! I love toads and frogs (I kissed a lot of them lately... ;-)))... but no prince unluckily)
:-)
Three Cheers for the BOFFO BUFO! They have contributed much to human reproductive efforts, as in this from Wikipedia:
"...An improvement arrived with the frog test, introduced by Lancelot Hogben, which still was used in the 1950s and allowed the frog to remain alive and be used repeatedly: a female frog was injected with serum or urine of the patient; if the frog produced eggs within the next 24 hours, the test was positive. This was called the Bufo test, named after the toad genus Bufo, which was originally used for the test. Other species of toads and frogs have been used later on.
We now owe it to the toads and their froggie cousins to preserve their habitat.
The recent atomic cloud (events) to grace our fair land. Effects of radiation on amphibians (count your toes).
Wait—there are frog researchers with names like Lancelot Hogben? What is this, a Dickens novel?
Daisy needs a prince! I know one charming Italian, but he's in Rome. Oh--but he needs to hire a translator...
Speedway, that's all very fascinating, but did anyone ask how the toad feels about it?
CA, I believe we're intact. I remember hundreds of tiny toads at Hahamongna just a few years ago. I think we're getting back to normal.
I noticed, J. I want to use that name somewhere in a piece of fiction if Dickens hasn't used it already.
Lancelot Hogben is right up there with the new Sherlock Holmes star, Benedict Cumberbatch. ;-)
Those are the kinds of names a fiction writer loves to collect.
Jeremiah Was a Bullfrog
I went to look at these tadpoles today - there are thousands of them! But it takes at least 65 days before they're little froglets that can hop away. I may, after all, have to organize a rescue mission when the pond dries up. They already do this in Eaton Canyon, when toads lay their eggs in puddles.
I didn't know that, Bellis. There's so much water at Hahamongna it seems it won't dry up that fast, but you never know.
Funny that they just glide across the pond while doing their thing.
...apparently with musical accompaniment.
Awww! Love is in the air...I mean in the pond.
Yeah. Must be something in the water.
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