The Common Toad

I disturbed this fellow when cutting back the summer growth in the big field. They live in shallow holes in thick vegetation to escape the heat and emerge at night. I rather hesitantly lifted him/her to the edge of the field. Strangely light. Like a dried out very knobbly gourd. This is due to the air sacs it can expand to make it look bigger - the paratoid glands - than it is.

I thought this toad ( bufo bufo)was a different species from UK garden toads but apparently not. They just grow bigger where the growing season is longer.

My wariness about picking the rospo up was not entirely misplaced. They contain a toxin - Bufotoxin - to deter predators. Apparently there is enough in one toad to kill a human (although you’d need to eat it to ingest the toxin).

There is something Buddha-like about these docile slow moving creatures with their bronze rimmed blinking eyes. But they are apparently voracious feeders and will take small mice. They live for up to 10 years, solitary creatures apart from spring mating in ponds they return to year after year, the females considerably bigger than the makes, the latter grow nuptial pads on their first three fingers the better to clap on if chosen by a female for spawning.