A Trilling Scene in my Garden

About three weeks ago, maybe a little more, I was ecstatic to find these eggs in my goldfish pond, although my husband is of a different opinion.  I had heard a high pitched trilling day and night, but hadn't thought too much about it.

See the long thread-like strands in the waterlilies? This are  the egg strands of the American toad.  Toads, while they live most of their lives on land, lay their eggs in the water and have  unusual, long egg strands while most of the amphibians here, such as the bull, green and leopard frogs--all of whom have taken up residence in my garden, lay gelatinous masses.

When I first moved here, you couldn't find a toad.  Last summer, I found a couple.  This spring, there was a little one in my vegetable garden.  Now, I'm going to be a fairy toad-mother.  It does present some problems however.....I didn't get the goldfish pond cleaned before they hatched....and as I want to encourage them and make sure as many survive as possible....I won't clean it until they get big enough to easily catch.  Which I hope is soon.  They hatched this weekend and are now about 1/4" long.

I remember as a child going to the pond and catching tons of tadpoles....I'm not looking forward to catching these.  Carlos has an aversion to toads and frogs, I suspect as a result of opening some wooden shutters in Cuba and having what he says were hundreds of frogs fall out (I suspect they were the coqui common to the Caribbean).  I am the one who catches the frogs from my goldfish pond and takes them away to another pond nearby.

My only aversion to frogs is to bullfrogs, and that's because they will eat my fish....and anything else they can get their mouths around.  I'm still not sure if the present frog in the pond is a green frog, or a bull frog....but at any rate I'm pleased that the fact that I don't use pesticides in my garden has made so many of the amphibians a happy home.




I meant to include this last night....now you'll understand what I mean about "trilling." Also, notice the amount of vibrations he sets up in the water with his call. Really cool.