Friday 28 February 2014

Toad of Cro Hall.



Every year it's the same; Mr and Mrs Toad turn up in late February, and lay strings of eggs in the water that sits on our black plastic pool cover.

Every year I remove the eggs and replace them in a nearby lake. This year I shall take them just down the road to where my neighbour, Laurence, has recently dug a big pond (that Monty now uses as his private swimming pool). I'm sure she won't mind.

I think they'll be happy there; there are already a few big hungry Carp in the pond; donated by local fishermen.

I've been hearing Toad 'croakings' for the last week or so; now I know why.

p.s. I've just been clearing leaves, etc, from the pool cover, and found these three Newts. How on earth did they get there? At first I thought they were tiny fish!


I shall take them down to Laurence's pond when I take the Toad's eggs. I think the one on the left might be a Lady Newt. The other two have hand-like back feet; they are possibly Palmate Newts.

16 comments:

  1. Your pool cover seems to be a regular wildlife reserve - we usually get a glut of frogs and spawn but heard no sign of them yet.

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  2. Won't the big hungry carp eat the defenceless little toad spawny strings?

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    1. I was also thinking that.
      They might even eat newts?

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    2. They'll have to take their chance. I don't really have another solution; other than just dumping them. I think they'll be OK.

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  3. If they were crested newts you would need a licence to move those newts in England ! The Wildlife organisations would be there discussing what you could do and it would undoubtedly cost a fortune to do it and hold up any work you intended to do on your property!
    (contentious post from Gill ooh er)

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    1. My daughter once planted a Yukka tree in her tiny Brighton front garden. When it grew tall it blocked out the light from a bedroom window, and she had to get permission to chop it down. Amazing.

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  4. I was forever fishing frogs out of the pool at my last place, Considering that for 90% of the year the place was bone dry and arid, I could never understand where fully grown frogs appeared from as soon as the rains came until Dominic dug the ground up and showed me how they hibernate underground.

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    Replies
    1. I've inadvertently dug-up a few at Haddock's, buried about 10 inches under ground.

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  5. I am so impressed....that you would take the eggs down to the pond ( I probably would have shook them off my cover) and that you study the newts enough to not only know male or female, but also what kind. Wow!
    Also impressed that you have growth and water on your pool cover....we still have 10* weather with snow on the ground. Don't you just love the sound of croaking toads??

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    Replies
    1. They croak very early in the morning here, and very near to where I have my laptop. It's an alternative dawn chorus.

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  6. The wild life is kicking in to gear over there...must be spring.

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  7. Bear Grills would make a meal out of the lot of them. :-) It will be at least an other 90 days before we even hear the first peepers. The pond across the road has ice 24 inches deep in it.

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  8. We will have another 10 inches of the white stuff on the ground by Monday. At least spring is coming to you. Can you put it on a jet plane, please.

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    Replies
    1. We can have destructive frosts up until mid May, so winter's not necessarily over yet.

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  9. From the bulging tummy I think you are right about it being a female Cro. We used to have a lot in our pool in Wolverhampton - they all went under the rockery in Winter and came back about this time of the year.

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