A fine toad

 

Our group ran across this whopper of an American Toad (Anaxyrus americanus) while on a nocturnal field trip in Shawnee State Forest (Scioto County, Ohio) on September 10, 2023. I could not resist making images of the big amphibian, and the toad cooperated nicely as they often do. Of course, I toad her not to move and fortunately she toad the line nicely. I've got scads of toad imagery, but can seldom resist new portraits, especially when the model is as fine as this one was.

I do appreciate the articulating back screen of my camera (Canon R5), which allowed me to set the camera on the ground for the shot and still see the composition by merely folding the screen out and looking down at that. To further ease the task, I have the touch screen set so that when I touch a spot on the screen, the camera automatically focuses on that spot then takes the image. This is all getting almost too easy.

I've spent my fair share of time in pre-articulating screen days prostrate on hard rocky substrates to get on my subjects' level, and that ain't much fun. I have zero qualms about going prostrate for photos and do so all the time. In fact, it's one of my favorite positions for photographing wee beasts, as it's important to be on your subject's level. But going flat on those hard rocky roads with big pebbles jabbing you? No thanks and I'm grateful for camera technology that sometimes makes that unnecessary.

American Toad

 

A burly American Toad (Anaxyrus americanus) levels an inscrutable stare at the cameraman. Many of the warty amphibians were on the move last Thursday night in Logan County, Ohio. That night was fairly warm and rainy and there were many frogs out and about as well. It won't be long, and the male toads will be singing from breeding pools. Their sonorous trills are a classic sound of spring. You're sure to eventually receive a positive karmic reward for helping a toad - and other amphibians. When they're crossing a road, as this one was, if possible, move them to the side they're heading for and well off the road.

PHOTO NOTES: The Canon R5 has made shots such as this easier. I've spent many hours over the years lying prone on wet roads and other substrates, to get on the same level as comparatively elfin subjects such as this toad. I don't have any real aversion to that, it comes with the turf. On the other hand, if you don't have to, why?

The R5 has a fold-out articulating rear screen, and that feature combined with its ability to set the camera so that a simple touch of the screen - where you want the focus point to be - instantly sets focus and takes the shot. So, in a case like this image, I just set the camera on the ground, screen folded out and angled up for perfect viewing, frame the subject, touch the eye of the subject (on the screen) and Voila! A nice eye-level image and the photographer remains undampened. As it was late at night and very dark, the Canon MT-24 Twin Lite flashes provided light. I really like this flash rig, which has pre-lights to provide enough illumination to find and focus on the subject before pulling the trigger. That way, no cumbersome flashlight is required, or the need to have someone else hold a flashlight on your subject.

Settings were f/14, ISO 400, and 1/200 of a second shutter speed. Smaller apertures - I'm usually at f/13 to f/16 for nocturnal amphibian work - are important to get good depth of field.

An orgy of toads

I don't mean for the title of the post to sound x-rated, but there's just no better way to describe a pool full of lusty American Toads in full mating fervor. Last night was warm, wet, and rainy, so I decided to head out to some of my favorite wetlands in Logan County to see what was hopping. I stopped along the way to meet up with Bellefontainite Cheryl Erwin, and much appreciated her company. Making decent images in pitch-black rainy conditions is challenging, to say the least, and having someone along to manipulate lights and whatnot is hugely helpful.

 

The salamanders had apparently mostly made their runs to the breeding ponds. We saw a few "unisexual" hybrids (more on those, HERE), and one road-killed Spotted Salamander. Although the sallies may have done their thing, Shift II, the frogs and toads, were in full swing. Spring Peepers peeped everywhere, and the raspy grates of Western Chorus Frogs were plentiful. The odd underwater snores of Northern Leopard Frogs were heard here and there, and while not much in tune yet, we saw several Green Frogs and Bullfrogs.

 

But it was the warty old toads that stole the show.

 

A male American Toad, Bufo americanus, in full song. Normally shy and recalcitrant, toads come out of their shell when it's time to woo the girls. We happened along a shallow roadside wetland that was, literally, hopping with toads. A pool full of dozens of toads caught up in the lust of spring is a spectacle nearly beyond belief. Males, such as the one above, rise from the water and deliver their long semi-melodic trills while others dash madly about like synchronized swimmers on a mushroom trip. Peepers and chorus frogs add to the din, and the amphibious soundscape is quite deafening.

Quite the charmers, these stud toads. Note his chalky-blue eyeliner, which (I believe) fades after the breeding season. If a female, enchanted by the male's aria, approaches, watch out! The hormone-saturated toad will often shoot out after her, and grab the female in quite the Cro-Magnon style. Sometimes a tussle ensues, and she breaks away, possibly to look for a more mannerly toad. Finding other suitors is no problem - there are trilling toads everywhere.

If a match is made, this is the result - amplexus. Amplexus is herpetological-speak for the act of mating, and once paired the happy couple can remain in position for a long time. The male (he's the one on top and if you didn't know that I feel sorry for you) is noticeably smaller than his mate.

The ultimate result of a toad mating frenzy are these long strands of helically twisted toad eggs. The blackish embryonic toadlets are visible through the opaque matrix that forms the eggs, and soon the pond will be awash with toad tadpoles. Those that are lucky enough to run the gauntlet of predators that lurk in such places will eventually rise from the water, and with luck live a good long life.

I like toads, warts and all

An American toad, Anaxyrus americanus, regards the camera with typical inscrutable aplomb. Even though we rather rudely picked the animal up and placed him on a rock for ease of photos, the toad displayed no emotions nor raised no objections.

John Howard, Tricia West and I found this toad while out salamandering last Friday evening, and we couldn't resist making a few shots. When I was a boy, my best friend, Jeff Held, and I would often capture toads and keep them in the gravel-bottomed window wells of Jeff's' parents house. These pet toads didn't have it so bad. We loved watching them feed, and would diligently work to capture all manner of insects which we would then feed to our toads. It was - and is! - great fun to see the warty little predators use their long sticky tongues to snap up a hapless insect in the blink of an eye.

A toad's eyes are things of great beauty. A background of molten gold is crisscrossed by webs of black pigment, and to me they suggest those ever-changing lava lamps. I suspect their vision is quite acute, possibly more so than many other amphibians. When potential prey enters one's sphere, the toad immediately snaps to full alert, and tracks its victim visually. CLICK HERE for a cool YouTube video of a southern toad, Anaxyrus terrestris, adeptly snaring a moth.

In a few weeks, toads will begin to sing. From wetlands great and small, the males' rich sonorous trills will resonate as the boys call in the girls. Not long after, the females will deposit long helical strands of eggs in shallow water. I photographed the eggs masses above on April 30, 2010 in a small pool in West Virginia.

Those eggs soon hatch out scores of tiny toad tadpoles, and if all goes well, within a few months they'll transform to tiny toadlets and hop onto land. It apparently takes a few years for a toad to reach sexual maturity and breed, and if one makes it to ths point it can live for a good many years.