That warty skin, that sweet face, those bulging eyes... who can resist a toad? They are few and far between these days though, this is the only one I've seen since probably about two years ago. When we first moved to this area in 1985, I remember seeing toads and frogs at some of the houses we looked at (I was QUITE young, don't forget!) and that sort of became my criteria for houses. If they didn't have frogs or toads somewhere, I wasn't impressed. So when we looked at the ranch that my parents ended up buying, it was love at first sight for me because the front yard was FULL of teeny baby toads. OMG they are so cute!!! There must have been at least hundreds of them all over the yard and in little burrows going under the sidewalk. I was absolutely enthralled. I don't even think I went with the rest of the family to look around the house, I just sat in the yard and played with toads the whole time.
For several years there was a huge toad population, they were all over the yard and all over the garden. They would hide in the cracked dirt in the garden (you know how when wet dirt dries out it cracks?) so then when the garden would get watered again they would all come out of the cracks and hop around. But over the years the population went down and now I hardly ever see one. I know that's somewhat a localized thing, because there were other places where I would see them, but even overall their population has gone way down. A couple years ago there were baby toads around the house again, you could go out at night with a flashlight and see a dozen or so, but nothing like the hundreds that used to live in the front yard on the big ranch. I miss the toads!
Yeah, okay, so maybe I'm a little weird.
Ha, not to weird, or maybe I am too. My sister and I were just talking about toads last week. Her son was saying you can't find them anymore. When we were kids, long time before you were a kid, we could find them anytime. Now if you can, they are small, and never seem to make it big anymore. I miss them too, and feel sorry for my kids, who have never really found a huge toad in their lives...oops, guess I'm admitting to being old, I sound like my Mom! Love the pics, thanks for a trip down memory lane!
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I know what you mean. The glory days of the toad seem to be over.. :-( By the old standards, this one would have been medium sized. I used to see HUGE toads on the ranch. Like if I put the tips of my thumbs together and the tips of my middle fingers together and make a circle, they were that big. There was one by the irrigation pump out front that I named "Toadally Toad." I hope this one sticks around. I don't really figure I'll see it again, but I hear one or two at night sometimes. I would just love it if there were babies around this summer again!
ReplyDeleteWe had a toad that big here in Folsom in our yard, it was hanging out over the drain. My cats loved it. By the way, I am glad you liked the wedding. k
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