Spring is definitely in the air here today; Common Toads are absolutely everyewhere at the moment, with seemingly only one thing on their minds! Please be careful at the moment, as it can be very easy to find one is underneath your approaching shoe...
Whilst pausing on the boardwalk to have a look at the bright sun and blue sky, I noticed a rustling in the reeds below. A few seconds later, a brown warty friend appeared, and lumbered out towards where I was standing. A few minutes later, after watching a Wren singing it's heart out in the reeds, a pair made themself obvious and soon looked as though they would like some privacy. Four feet away, a female was carrying a male into some reeds, and as I was walking back to the visitor centre a gentleman pointed out two toads just beside our owl sculpture. It certainly feels like Spring is here today!
So, promptly after returning from my wander, I decided to read up about these little creatures. I soon found out that toads lay between 1,000 and 8,000 eggs - although adults spend most of their time on land, females enter ponds to lay these eggs (toadspawn) which form in strings, so we can tell them from frogspawn. This isn't why they form in strings; I just thought I should make that clear!
If you'd like to help these lumpy bumpy lumberers at home, check out the RSPB's Homes for Wildlife webpages which have loads of ideas for people who'd like to garden for wildlife, such as building a hibernaculum (would you go to the website if I told you what one was?).
Georgina Collins