Tons of Toad Eggs Just Appeared!

Whooooohoooooo... I'm going to be a Toad-Daddy again!!!

Today started out just like any other day.  I awoke too early but couldn't go back to sleep; I made coffee; I fed the birds.  Then, the first bump in my mundane daily routine on Red Tail Ridge.  Our silent resident toad was sitting on the patio by the steps that go into the house.  I stopped to talk with s/he but the toad had nothing to say so I went into the house.  Looking out the window I watched the toad hop along the patio and disappear under my wooden box that stores everything I hold dear except for what's in the garage.

When Ginger got home from the gym she went out to water and I was telling her there may be a toad under the wooden box.  A few minutes later Ginger told me the toad was not under the wooden box but in the "spa" with another toad on her back.  Then she added the fantastic news that there were "a ton of eggs" in the pond.  That was enough to almost make me choke on my peanut butter and dill pickle sandwich.

The whispering of sweet nothings, the special look, the raised eyebrow, the tempting smile and then the wink, was all it took and then, just then, the big geewhiz began.  Sometime between 8:00 AM this morning and noon the female's eggs were expelled, immediately fertilized by the male, to fall onto the rock as pictured below.  Oh the heat, the passion.  You don't think I should rate this post XXX do you?

Working on the assumption the male is a fertile guy... uno, no major accidents riding his bike when he was a kid or exposed to too much radiation when hang'n in the womb...  we will have toadlets, tadpoles or toadpoles.  By what name you refer to these creatures makes no difference.  Mother Nature at work just makes me excited.

So here are a few pictures:

Can you find the toads in this picture?  Not near as easy as looking for an insect on a daisy!  If you can't find them
let me know (via comment if you like) and I'll give you a hint.

As you can see, the male is much smaller than the female.  I just love the way he "hugs" her.  If I could only hear and understand what he's saying to her... bet it sounds a lot like Peppy LePew of Loony Tunes origin.

I'm wondering if the reason the toad was so silent was the male wasn't around and it was the female we kept seeing.  The females don't croak as it's the males job to be aggressively pursuing her and fending off other suitors.

 Just below the feet of the toads pictured above and in the next couple of photos you see the "ton" of eggs. 

Last year it took 5 or 6 days for the eggs to hatch into toadpoles... very small toadpoles.  I expect it to be about the same amount of time this year.  It's the temperature of the water that is the main item in determining gestation of the eggs.

All this is very exciting for me.  Probably making my fan yawn just reading all this drivel. 

More pictures of future toadlets.

Do you remember the difference between toad eggs and frog eggs?  If you don't know the difference you need to re-read this blog.  

This is your Toad-Daddy signing off!







Whoohoo!!!