About two weeks ago-- Sunday, May 4th, as it happens--Emily and I discovered two toads mating in a deep puddle near our farm pond. She said, "Mom, I see a frog." I went over and looked, and I saw a "frog," too, but then I realized there were two of them and that they were not frogs, but toads. This was a perfect opportunity to add to my seven-year-old's growing store of knowledge about sex--try to avoid it on a farm--and we stood there for about half an hour, discussing reproduction and admiring the long string of tiny, black eggs covered in a gelatinous egg case. We went back several hours later to find what looked like miles of intestines looping through the puddle. It was truly amazing!
From the description on Robyn's Toad Page (http://www.fishpondinfo.com/toad), I'm pretty sure they were bufo americanus, the most common variety of toad found in North America. I found the photo on that site, as well as lots of information about caring for toads. We've never used chemicals in our garden, so we have a pretty healthy population of toads around here. They often take refuge from the summer heat in the basement and they like to congregate around the washing machine, so you have to be careful where you walk while carrying overflowing baskets of dirty clothes.
Emily checked on the eggs several times a day and yesterday she noticed that they had hatched and there were millions of little, black tadpoles--or toadpoles as Robyn likes to call them--swimming in the puddle. She immediately grabbed a jar and caught about half a dozen of them, which she put into a spare goldfish bowl. I usually make her put wild things back after observing them for a while, but I think we will try to raise these guys. It's fun to watch their legs grow and toads are such gregarious creatures. If they make it to adulthood, we will release them into the garden where they will find plenty of "toad houses" to move into.
But having removed these guys from their habitat, we had to figure out what to feed them. On http://allaboutfrogs.org/info/tadpoles/, we found out that they like lettuce, so we are giving them little pieces of slimy, frozen lettuce and a few flakes of goldfish food. The only unfortunate thing about having tadpoles is that we will have to take them with us when we go camping over Memorial Day weekend. A couple of years ago, we left Dad at home to do chores with strict instructions to feed the goldfish, but he forgot and they were history by the time we came home. Emily has declared that this time we are purchasing a couple of those small, plastic habitats, and the fish and the tadpoles are coming along. I guess we could try a couple of canning jars on a rope around her neck (from What About Bob? In my opinion, Bill Murray's best movie).
In an unusual twist of synchronicity, it happens that my older daughter, Linnea, who is a biology student at Helsinki University in Finland, also saw a pair of toads mating on the very same day. Dodododododododo (Twilight Zone music for you youngsters). It's kind of weird, but it's nice that the girls can share something even though they are separated by so many miles!
