Friday, May 10, 2013

Horny Toad Happening


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.


Scat I.D.

Anyone care to take a stab at identifying this scat?  It was plop in the middle of a rough upland trail through mixed woods.