toads, toads, and more toads!

[Candi]

Took Ali for our walk on the path at Sandy Hook today, I was walking along pushing the stroller and chatting with her about flowers/birds etc when I saw something jump on the ground... thought "cricket" and kept walking.... then I saw a TON of whatever was jumping, being deathly afraid of spiders I decided I better see exactly what they were... TINY BABY TOADS!!! To say there were hundreds would have been underestimating their numbers the ground was simply moving with them. Sadly many hadn't made it across the path of joggers/walkers/strollers/bikes. My little girl was so excited we decided to take a few home to get a closer look.

I have some in a 5g terrarium I threw together and I must admit they are cute little guys, from what I read online they are Fowler's toads (http://www.brookdale.cc.nj.us/staff/sandyhook/dgrant/field/ulysses.htm)

Pretty cool, we'll return them later today or tomorrow morning (assuming they can't be set free in our garden?)

 

[Big Jay]

You can set them free in your garden and chances are they will do quite fine. There are larger ones. Down near my shore house (Little Egg Harbor) they can almost reach plague like levels. Its quite an eye opener when there are 1000's of baby/adolescent/adult toads jumping across your path...mostly at night.

The larger adults make good bites save the fact you need to feed them live insects (crickets, wax worms, etc.) The babies are more difficult and need to be fed fruit flies and other small prey.

 

[Candi]

It was a fun project! She helped me make the terrarium up, learned about habitats, camouflage, growth from tadpoles, etc. We caught little ants and bugs and fed them. Let them go last night in the garden after watering really well. They were going crazy eating tons of little bugs in the mulch. We're going today to get some clay pots & saucers to make toad homes & pools LOL I hope some stay around.