Cookham Toad Patrol
If
you were a Toad in Cookham, you would be very glad to see Barbara Brown. She’s a bit like International Rescue for Toads. You’d recognize her easily enough
because she’d be carrying a bucket, two children’s fishing nets and
several scoopy things, whilst marching up and down Lightlands Lane. Her mission is to save Cookham's Toads from
being squashed on the road, and she has a team of Toad Wranglers that help her.
First
of all, a few toad basics for any rookie Toad Wranglers:
- Toads have lumpy skin and frogs have smooth skin.
- Toads tend to live away from water (until they mate) frogs need to live close to it.
- Toads prefer to crawl (although they can hop) and frogs prefer to hop.
- Toad Wranglers really need gloves, because they produce a toxin from glands behind their eyes (meant to deter predators from eating them) that can be irritating to the skin.
- Toad Spawn is laid in strings, Frog Spawn in dense clumps.
- You WANT Toads (and Frogs) in your garden because they will help eat the eleventy-billion slugs and snails that are feasting on your hostas even as you read this.
And
so back to Barbara and the Toad Wranglers.
Come March/April you’ll find them on Toad Patrol helping adult Toads to cross
the road. Easy enough you might think,
but they generally don’t move till dusk, they prefer to go when it’s wet i.e. pouring
with rain and there can be as many as twenty toads an hour sacrificing
themselves to Cupid bow. Fortunate then
that International Rescue use scoops and buckets to make the crossing
survivable for as many as possible despite the fact that it's not ever such a nice night out for them! But
the mortal peril does not end there. If
you were a gentleman Toad, you’d need to first find your lady. Not as simple as it sounds because it’s not
unusual for Toads to mount another male in their single minded, sexual frenzy. Then assuming you did find a lady Toad, you would
have to fight off a load of other suitors to win her affection and...erm…well
basically, you would grab her from behind, lock your arms round her and hang on
for dear life. Hence you will sometimes
see a writhing “ball” of Toads in a mating pond under which – most unfortunately
– is one super sexy, Diana Doors of Toadville.
Fast
forward several months and Barbara and the Toad Wranglers are back out there,
this time searching for the Toadlets – the progeny of the pond life orgy. They are all grown up (to the size of the finger
nail on your pinkie) and the Toadlets are now in search of independence and a
one bed Toad starter home, entirely without the help of The Bank of Mum and
Dad. Snug little holes, deep piles of leaf
litter or compost heaps are all a most attractive des res. Barbara and team rescued ninety two Toadlets
the other night. Ninety two little souls that otherwise might not have made it across the road, let alone to next
Tuesday.
So,
if you find yourself at a loose end at dusk in the next week, please consider
volunteering an hour of your time. Just
in case you get reincarnated as toad in Cookham. Information
about the toad migration is normally available on Cookham Wildlife Supporters Meet Up and Facebook pages. The activity is probably not suitable for
children because of the dangers of the road and the handling of the Toads, and if
you would like to attend, taking a thin glove, a high sided bucket and some
sort of scoopy thing would be helpful.
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