Hi big kid, at least you and I still look in from time to time.

The toads are arriving, there were a couple of males in the pond this afternoon, and this evening, I could hear some rustling and squeaking. Found in the ivy about 2 meters from the pond a sqeaking tangle of legs. There was a male clamped onto the head of a female as she was trying to make her way to the pond. Not easy to do with a squeaking toad on your head, to climb through ivy. So I picked them up and put them by the pond. Poor female kept falling over trying to walk into the shallows due to the overbalancing caused by her rather squeaky friend.

Found a good website on toads (see link), and I think I can see where the term behaving like toads comes from--they are a bit brutal as males outnumber females. Females also prefer a good deep croak, and this little guy was surely a contralto.

In a few days I will get a strong torch and look into the deep water at night and see if I can find spawn.

Taddies do take awhile to eat their egg sacs, and then it seems to disappear overnight. Does anyone have water starwort? Mind seems to have taken off and I am assuming it is ok to let it do so.

Spring is in the air, happy ponding,

Chip

Here is a link that might be useful: toad link