Reel McKoi wrote:


"Derek Broughton" wrote in message
...
I didn't think I did either. At the head of our harbour, they've had
spring
peepers now for over a week, but we don't have them on the coast, yet.
But
last night when I took the dogs out for a walk I had to pick up a 6" toad
off the road. He seemed a bit cold and sluggish, and the road wasn't a
good spot to spend the night (though I'd almost certainly be the only
person to use it before noon today), so I put him in the ditch.

I wonder what's going on with the frogs and toads this year!!?!?!?! We
heard spring peepers one night for a few hours. It sounded like only a
few, not the hundreds and hundreds we'd usually hear for several nights in
a row
(in the neighbor's stock pond). Then the same thing in our own ponds - we
hard a few frogs for maybe a week, then nothing. All the other years the
noise level out there was incredible.
Where are the toads? I saw one and as you described, it was "sluggish."
Could there be some frog/toad disease out there, possibly spread from some
imported amphibious pets?

Not in my case. We've rarely had temperatures in the 50s, here. It's
exactly 50F right now. So when I saw that toad at around midnight it was
getting close to freezing. That's going to make any toad sluggish :-)

I heard three peepers last night. It's a bit depressing to even be able to
cont them, but there'll be more when it's warmed up a bit. The ones at the
head of the harbour are in plentiful voice.
--
derek