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Spadefoot toads

What’s this in the road? A pair of toads. Eastern Spadefoot toads are hard to see unless they are using our seasonal wetlands for breeding. It’s a relatively pretty toad, with beautiful large protruding eyes and vertical pupils. During mating season, the males call their waaah call to attract females, and then hang on until she decides where to lay over 800 eggs, and the male will fertilize them once she has deposited the eggs. You can see the “footprints” (really belly prints) that this pair has left in the puddle. These toads have a shovel-like digging projection on their foot which they use to dig themselves into the ground. They’re nocturnal, spending most of their lives in underground burrows, eating insects and other invertebrates. When we stop by the puddle a week later, we’re delighted to find tadpoles, which will eventually become these tiny guys, off to grow larger in their own burrows.