Forget water beetles, forget dragonflies, forget all that, and instead look closely at the photo below:
Do you see it? Just to the right of the two rocks…
We have a toad! All right, so he was here all along (The Flâneur Husband narrowly missed him while he was mowing the lawn the day before yesterday) but that same afternoon he went for a swim! In The Puddles!!! And he stayed there for hours on end, sitting on the sloping rock and seemingly enjoying himself!
Hooray! You really know your Puddles have Arrived when they sport their very own toad! Now he’ll start inviting all his friends and neighbors to join him, too.
And perhaps he’ll even entice a toad-ess to join him for some procreational fun so we can have ribbons of toad eggs in spring… You never know!!!
But yes, it really is quite a feeling of validation, seeing a toad jump into The Puddles. I was afraid The Puddles would seem like a silly miniature folly in the garden, but they aren’t; even though they are little more than large bird baths they seem to attract the sort of wildlife I was hoping for.
Success indeed…I just love toads and anytime they are in the garden is a great sign…he has found a home
Toads are a great help to a gardener, I’ve been told, and even if not I think they are quite charming, even if they’re not – perhaps – the prettiest creatures on Earth…
But any kind of wildlife (except mosquitoes) in The Puddles is a success, and especially something as big as this.
(And there’s an entry just waiting to be posted with more thrilling news about my gardening companions…)
That is a result! I love watching toads in our garden too, and they have found our pond but so far no signs of “activity”, maybe next year …..
I’m hoping next year they will choose The Puddles as the place to bring up their offspring, but of course you never know. (Though to be honest I’m not sure there are any other ponds or puddles in the area, so they will have very little choice if they do decide to breed…)
For now I’m just pleased that a single toad thinks The Puddles is a nice place to relax!
I bet he thinks you put that feature in just for him!
And I bet he would love to tell you thank you for it, too.
Well, I sort of did… I was always hoping it would attract a toad, though I had set insects as my success criteria. Now, though, the next level of success would be tadpoles next spring!
Good to see a toad turning up, I have also been banging on about our puddle and claiming to have frogs, could well be toads for all I know.
There’s actually no technical distinction between toads and frogs beside the name, so with some frogs it can be hard to tell. Mine, though, are definitely toads; our local frogs are much smoother, so the knobbly skin is a clear indication that this is a toad.
Also, your puddle is a lot – a LOT – bigger than my three small puddles.
You must be so chuffed. I’ve discovered a resident frog in the garden but I don’t think he alone can solve my slug problem. He’ll be one fat frog!
I’m terribly excited! And of course I have since discovered one more toad roaming the garden at night, so who knows; maybe eventually there will be enough predators to help me combat those ******** slugs?