This spring's bufo orgy is in full swing down at the pond. The loud music is the first clue that there's quite a party going on. The trilling of hundreds of males can be heard from quite a distance away. The first photo shows one of them floating around on a small log, inflating its neck and singing its tune. A herpetologist once told me that the males are in such a frenzy during these gatherings that they'd try to mate with a doorknob if you lowered it into the water. The female in the second picture would likely welcome the distraction of a doorknob, and maybe even find it more appealing that the clingy males that are hanging on to her for dear life. The third photo shows a couple of toads approaching a snake that was lolling about. When one of them got too close, the snake quickly swam to the pond's edge and hid itself among the reeds.
