The Natterjack toads are back! After a long, comfy snooze in the sand dunes where they hibernate throughout the winter they returned to making a racket all through the night, announcing their arrival with a firm chorus of croaking!
Why have they returned? Well it’s the season of love for the Natterjack toads that will spend the next few months spawning on Mersehead’s designated Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). From around now until June the little males come out to sit on the waters edges, in the low grasses and “sing sweetly” (loud and obnoxiously) to the females hiding in the ponds and pools.
This means it’s been a busy old time for the staff. On the 24th of April we donned our head torches and went on a toad hunt. The aim of the survey was to attempt to establish an estimate of how many individuals were calling on the site, especially important after the loss of a large percentage of sand dune habitats during the storm surges last year. The equipment was rather simple, merely a cheerfully patterned ruler and a couple of torches, and with the odd yawn we walked the edges of the habitats searching. We used the torches to scan the water, looking out for a telltale glint of two little eyes staring up at us and once spotted would gently pick up the Natterjack, ready to record.
The recording process was quick an easy. Each Natterjack was sexed – by checking for a blue patch of skin under the chin- , measured and photographed to be added to a collection and compared to previous years. Each individual has his or her own unique pattern of yellow line and warts meaning we can see who’s new and who’s a veteran! So this toad below number 39 was found last year when we carried out this survey in April 2014. We can tell this from the D shape on its back highlighted below
After being recorded they were released back to where they were found and went back to making a good old racket! In total we found 50 individuals, a definite improvement on last year’s 31 suggesting things could be getting better for the Natterjack toads.
We will be doing this all though the breeding season and monitoring how well they do this year
(All photos credit to Eric Neilson)