Toad Counts

I've now complete the first week of 'proper' surveying when we were looking for amphibian signs rather than concentrating on collecting environmental data.  Unfortunately the first survey had to be cancelled - the weather on the day was really bad with very strong winds and bursts of heavy rain. I was actually out on another reserve that day and the surface of the water was very disturbed so it would have been difficult to see anything, even by torchlight. The temperature also dropped below 5 Celcius overnight which makes amphibians less active.

Our second survey was on Thursday night at Rothwell Country Park and this was much more successful. A group of four of us arrived and we managed to survey most of the ponds I had planned. We started about an hour before sunset and carried out a visual search for adults and eggs. I think it is a little early in the season for newt eggs, but we did see toads and newts in the ponds.  By the time we had reached the north east corner of the park it was getting dark so we switched to torching and made our way back to the cars, checking the ponds as we went.  The toads were out in large numbers, not just in the focal pond which is ideal for them to bask in, but there were quite high numbers in several of the other ponds as well.  We also saw a few smooth newts, and were blessed by a barn owl hunting overhead.

On Saturday a happy band of two turned up to survey Letchmire Pastures, which has a smaller number of ponds but they are larger in size. The initial search was not very productive, but again we saw toads that hinted at what was to come later in the evening. Once we began torching, we could hardly keep count, and it was actually quite difficult to walk anywhere as they were still arriving at the ponds.

I was conscious that once frogs and toads arrive at a pond they can breed rather quickly and then disappear. With this in mind, having missed out our survey at Ledston Luck due to bad weather I was concerned that we may miss seeing the toads there.  As the site is on the way home, we quickly pulled into Ledston Luck after completing the ponds at Letchmire Pastures, and had a quick walk around the focal pond. Again, this was awash with toads and I am pleased we managed to capture that information as well. Across the three sites, well over a thousand toads were counted so it was a great start to the season.

To finish off the week, I had an extra, informal visit to a different site with some colleagues. This looked a bit of an uninspiring site, but did have some great crested newts relocated there a few years ago. We arrived just as it was getting dark so I probably didn't see the surrounding countryside to its best effect, but it was surrounded on one side by arable fields and the M1 motorway on the other. Despite this, the first pond was fairly healthy with lots of suitable aquatic vegetation ... but all we saw were a lot more toads! There was the odd flash of silver that was probably the tail of a great crested newt, but they were very elusive and kept disappearing into the weeds. Picking our way carefully to the next pond, this time we did see a couple of newts but there were the more common smooth newts. The third and finally pond was very disappointing to look at, with little vegetation and the water was extremely turbid. However, there was a rather nice female great crested newt sitting on the surface that obligingly let us have a close look, so it was a worthwhile trip out after all.

PS. A return visit to Rothwell Country Park this week revealed that the toads have successfully bred. Spawn is much more difficult to find as it is laid in strings, often at depth, and intertwined around vegetation as shown in the photograph.