May 4 Mr. Toad

This morning I biked to the Lakeshore Preserve to look for new birds and along the lake I heard an extremely high-pitched, sustained trill. I then saw one of the amphibians making this music, a toad! The american toad (Bufo americanus) is 2-4 inches long, but this little guy was maybe two inches if stretching out. Now that does not mean it was born this year, just that it's a smaller than some monster toads you have probably seen. Toads are born from eggs into water and take about two weeks to grow hind legs. At this early stage, thousands of baby toads are eaten by reptiles, birds, and each other. Then, after another 2-8 weeks, the survivors will emerge from the water, begin eating insects (one toad will eat almost 10,000 insects in a summer!) and by the end of the summer look like an adult toad. However, it will be 2-3 years before they are able to reproduce. No other frogs have warts like toads, or the two large glands behind their eyes. All of these produce toxic secretions meant to discourage would-be predators from doing their predatoring. Toads may be any of several colors though: brown, tan, red, red brown, gray, greenish. And some have stripes down the middle of their backs, as this one does. Toad trills will continue until the end of June, so you have plenty of time to hear and look for them.