Toad

I arrived at the grove today to be greeted by a very depressing scene. Someone has raked up the undergrowth of three quarters of the land, right down to bare soil and dumped the rubbish on the compost mound. About 90% of my blipping ground has been destroyed. I hope this has been done for a good reason and not just to spoil my day.

The grove is just a patch of common land that the locals can use to grow stuff, a bit like an allotment back in the UK. I do see a bit of growing going on but not too much harvesting. Occasionally one of the women comes through and picks some of the leaves or a bag of seed pods.

The fruit on the climbing frame in the corner was untouched and the weight of the fruit plus the heavy rain, collapsed the frame. The frame has bee rebuilt, so maybe they picked the fruit when I was not around. The huge crop of papaya on the tree has thus far been untouched and the oldest fruits have yellowed and started to disintegrate, hence the fly blip a week ago.

I patrolled the muddy wasteland but it was like looking for acorns in the Sahara. No hoppers leaping out of the way of my clumsy size tens, no butterflies to complement the absent blooms, no flies to feed the missing dragons, just barren, desolate wasteland. Sure, it will grow back, but it is going to take a lot longer than the recovery from the trimming a week or two ago.

There was a strip of about fifteen feet of undergrowth along the far wall that was untouched. I usually only give it a cursory once over as the mozzies seem to have made this their home. I took a few snaps of a hopper but my heart was just not in it today. I nudged a stump with my toe to see if anything popped out and to my surprise, the stump started leaping about. This has to be the biggest toad that I have ever seen and a great blip opportunity.

Toads are a lot easier than lizards for sure, but they are not a piece of cake either. They like to conceal themselves in the long grass. A few foreground blades adds to the atmosphere of the image, but most of the time it was concealing too much of the toad. I would chase it into the open, let it settle and then get down on my belly, grab a few shots, then it would hop off again. Repeat, repeat, I was up and down on the ground more often than an Italian center forward.

I picked up some great images but there was a lot more to be had. I could have captured the toad and set up something, but this is blip, we don't do stuff like that, I draw the line at standing on a lizards tail. Ironic that on the worst day of the grove experience, I end up with one of the best shots of them all. I could have done with the toad a few weeks ago when Beth's competition was open.

Sorry for the lack of humor in my writing, this has not been a good week for me. I will have a ride around later today and see if I can find another natural history venue to substitute the grove while it recovers. I am certainly not quitting on the insects, so you will still have your breakfast bug to complement your cornflakes.

Dave