Wasps and Other Mud Puddle Visitors

During early afternoon on the day before the Toad Pool went dry, I spent a couple of hours photographing visitors to the rapidly shrinking puddle. During this session I concentrated more on short videos than on stills.

A single, newly morphed toad is a couple weeks behind the hoard that emerged from the pool a few weeks ago. This little guy has only been a land dweller for a short time, but it already displays the mannerisms of an adult.  Click HERE for YouTube version.

The most noticeable visitors to the pool were wasps loading up on water. The wasps were light enough to ride the surface tension of the water as they drank.

Several species of paper wasps took advantage of this dwindling water supply. A few mud wasps also flew in, but they all left with only water.  Click HERE for YouTube version.

The paper wasp in this video doesn’t seem to be intimidated by the beetle larva attacking it from the rear. It’s probably a good thing the larva couldn’t get hold of the wasp, or it might’ve been pulled right out of the water.  Click HERE for YouTube version.

A small wolf spider stalked the mud flats.  It was particularly interested in the movement of what appeared to be a small insect near the edge of the pool. What wasn’t immediately obvious was the fact that the small insect was held in the jaws of a much larger aquatic beetle larva.

The spider finally attempts an attack on the small insect, but is driven back when the beetle larva begins to thrash its head. Immediately after the head thrashing, the beetle larva scoops a small bit of mud into his breathing snorkel, located just to the right of the thrashing head, and shoots a mud ball at the place the spider had just been.  An interesting defense mechanism.  Click HERE for YouTube version.

Several butterflies took advantage of the wet mud to imbibe some mineral laden water. The most persistent of these was a common Buckeye.

The temperature at the time this video was made was 93°F and there was a strong wind blowing. You can see the puddling butterfly occasionally buffeted by the wind. I was pretty much baked all the way through by the time I called an end to this photography session.  Click HERE for YouTube version.

Toad Pool Success - Part 2

Blue Jay Barrens is experiencing an influx of thousands of young Eastern American Toads emerging from the still under construction Toad Pool 2. This little guy has fully absorbed his tail and, looking every bit like the adult version of his species, is moving away from the pool towards the open fields.

The pool experienced no shortage of water this spring. Frequent rains provided above average rainfall totals causing the water to regularly be at a level higher than intended.

Toad eggs appeared in the pond on March 29 and began hatching on April 2. By April 5 the eggs had completed hatching, but the tadpoles were not yet mobile and their pattern on the bottom of the pool continued to match the strings of eggs that had been laid out a week before.

After exiting the egg membrane, the tadpoles remain stationary for several days as they absorb their yolk sacs and mature into a more traditional tadpole form. Their first food will be the algae seen growing on the empty jelly strings and pool bottom.

Once they become mobile, with tadpoles migrate upslope to shallower water where the generally warmer temperatures will aid in their growth and development. Their initial efforts cause them to congregate atop the slightly higher mounds on the pool bottom.

A few days later their improved swimming ability allows them to reach the shallow water at the edge of the pool.

The unfinished condition of the toad pool caused an unintended broad expanse of shallow water to become available to the tadpoles.

The shallow area, which had been left smooth when construction was halted last fall, had become pocked with depressions caused by deer visiting the pool.

As water levels receded during uncharacteristic hot periods between rainfalls, the depressions became isolated pockets that rapidly dried after their connection to the main body of water was severed. Tadpoles caught in these depressions quickly perished.

Fortunately, I still retained the mud puddle engineering skills that I had honed as a child and was able to make periodic adjustments in the way of dams and channels to ameliorate the desiccation threat to the tadpoles. If weather conditions allow me to complete my construction activities is fall, the hazard should not exist next year.

Transformation from tadpole to terrestrial toad form began a week ago and is now proceeding at a rapid pace.

Once all four legs appear, the tail quickly shrinks and the young toad pushes himself free of the water.

It spends a day or two near the water’s edge before heading off to begin a terrestrial lifestyle.

The little toads are so numerous in the vicinity of the pool but I can’t walk in that area without stepping on a few, so I’m waiting until they’ve had a chance to disperse before checking the pool again. I’m looking forward to encountering these little guys through the summer. It will be two or three years before this year’s hatch is mature enough to return here to breed. By that time Toad Pool 2 will be completed and, with any luck, there should also be a Toad Pool 3.

Toad Pool Success

Keeping the toad pools full of water has not been a problem this year.  Two or three rainfalls per week has kept them filled to the brim. 

This is the fourth spring for Toad Pool 1.  Vegetation was quick to fill in here, but amphibians were slow to arrive.

This is the second spring that water has been present in Toad Pool 2.  Last year the pool was still under construction and only had a depth of a few inches.  This year’s pool has a center portion with a depth of about one foot, and the soil was compacted during construction to minimize leakage. 

The pools were constructed with the primary goal of creating Toad breeding habitat.  This is the first year that toads have actually visited the pools.  During warmer nights, males move into the pools to call for mates.  I counted nine males ringing the shoreline of Toad Pool 2 on March 25.

It took a few nights before a female made it to the pool.  This couple, with female in front, is ready to begin the process of depositing and fertilizing eggs.

On the morning of March 29, I finally found strings of toad eggs in the pool.  The depressions in the bottom of the pool were made by deer hooves.  Whitetail Deer treat these pools as their private playgrounds.  I’m hoping that doesn’t cause a problem for developing tadpoles.

Eggs began to hatch on April 2.  By the next day, hatching was proceeding at a rapid pace.

This collection of egg strands is in deeper water and wasn’t noticeable until hatching began.  Everything seems to be going well.  Hopefully, the end result will be a mass of small toads leaving the pool.

There was one thing different about the toad pools this spring that may have contributed to the toad visitations.  Both pools were surrounded by a mass of Spring Peepers creating a loud chorus.  I’m wondering if the Peeper song alerted the toads to the fact that a suitable breeding pool was available.  The newly hatched Peeper tadpoles shown above are just two of dozens hanging in the algae around the edge of the pools.  This toad pool venture may just turn out to be a success.

Breeding Toads

American Toads have recently moved into the pond for their annual breeding event.  I’ve seen a total of four toads; three singing males and one female.  It’s not a great turnout, but it beats last year’s total of zero.  These two males were in the center of the pond, requiring a long lens and flash in order to capture an image.  Animals with reflective eyes just aren’t good subjects for flash photography.

Frequent rains have kept plenty of water in the pond.  The runoff water has brought in a load of nutrients from the township road.  The nutrients, along with uncommonly warm weather, have triggered an excessive growth of filamentous algae.  The algae pads have allowed the male toads to perform their courtship songs far from shore.

The algae growth actually benefits developing frog tadpoles.  The tadpoles feed heavily on the algae, and the algae makes it more difficult for predatory salamander larvae to stalk and capture the tadpoles.

Long, black strands of eggs are the result of the toad’s breeding activities.

Here is the couple responsible for all of those eggs.  The male hangs onto the female’s back and fertilizes the eggs as they are released.  The female determines where they eggs will be placed.  She moves the couple around through the vegetation, while the male just goes along for the ride.

I’m hoping that these eggs will be responsible for a mass of small toads leaving the pond in a few months.  I saw young toads in abundance last year, but I never found the breeding site.  I’ll be taking a few of these eggs and putting them into the pool I built specifically for breeding toads.  If some toads actually hatch from that pool, maybe a few will eventually return there to breed.

Young Toads

Somewhere in the vicinity of Blue Jay Barrens, American Toads managed a breeding effort successful enough to cover the area with a new generation of toads.  I’ve been seeing little toads everywhere from the yard to the hilltop a half mile away.  Their numbers are akin to an invasion.

It doesn’t take long for newly transformed toads to become miniature replicas of their adult kin.  Just a few weeks ago, this toad was just a small black tadpole.  Now it has the appearance and behavior of a mature toad.  The one behavioral exception might be the tendency for very young toads to travel by way of a series of short, rapid hops.  A startled youngster appears almost frantic in its efforts to flee a perceived danger.

It’s been at least 20 years since I’ve seen this many young toads at Blue Jay Barrens.  I would really like to identify the breeding site.  My garden is full of tiny toads, but I know that the pools I developed nearby did not see any toad activity this year.  It’s possible that the heavy rains we had this spring created a temporary pool somewhere that was just perfect for toads.  Young toads may travel a long distance as they disperse from their nursery pool, so it’s hard to guess the distance or direction to their place of origin.

It’s fun to see the toads in the garden, but it means I have to be careful of where I put my feet.  This youngster was closely watching some small beetles walking on the strawberry leaves.

I found this fellow on one of the barrens.  It was nestled down in a dewy spider web and didn’t seem inclined to move.  Toads often spend much of their lives away from open water.  Dew can be an important source of moisture for hydration.

I managed to persuade this little guy to perch on my finger long enough to get a shot for size comparison.  The hand is normal sized.  The toad is tiny.

American Toad

Eastern Moles tunneled extensively through my vegetable garden during this past winter.  They are no longer active and the tunnels they left behind periodically collapse to provide an entrance to the underground labyrinth.  A fresh opening at the end of one of my garden beds showed signs of movement inside, so I went to investigate.

The color matched the surrounding soil, but this was no lump of dirt.  An American Toad was using the mole tunnel as a daytime retreat.

As I looked in at the toad, it turned and peered back at me.  Toads have always been a favorite of mine.  When I was nine years old, my best friend through the summer was a toad.  He lived in a shaded pen in the flower bed and I took him out every day to hunt for food.  As I turned stones or dug through the soil, he would climb over my fingers in an effort to be right up front when a tasty morsel was unearthed.  When school began in the fall, I just removed the walls of his pen and left him to forage on his own.

A toad will eat just about any slow moving creature small enough to fit in its mouth.  I dropped a couple of earthworms down the hole for this guy.

It was just too difficult to get a good shot of the toad eating while it was down in the mole tunnel.  The toad ate every worm I sent its way, but the best view I got was of the toad with a worm end sticking from its mouth.

I tried holding the worm at the tunnel entrance and the toad obligingly came out to accept the offering.

The toad was just too fast for me.  The worm was taken and swallowed before my camera could react.  I think the toad got full, because after a few worms, it crawled on down the tunnel and disappeared. 

The exciting thing about this toad discovery is the fact that the toad was within 120 feet of my toad pool.  Built specifically for use by breeding toads, the toad pool has yet to receive its first toad egg.  To be fair, the pool has only been in existence for two breeding seasons.  With toad numbers on the decline at Blue Jay Barrens, I am hopeful that the addition of suitable breeding sites will reverse that trend and result in toad encounters once again being a common occurrence.

Wood Frogs have demonstrated that the toad pool provides adequate food and water to satisfy the needs of tadpoles through their development to small frogs.  Maybe it will be next year that the toads prove that the toad pool idea was properly conceived and executed.  The pool has attracted a wide variety of wildlife, but until the toads arrive, I’ll have to consider the project to be a failure.

Toad Song

There’s usually more than a couple of days span between the first call of the Spring Peeper and the first song of the Eastern Toad.  My calendar records show Peepers normally active in late February and Toads showing up around April 1.  This year, Peepers preceded the Toads by only two days.  Peeper numbers have also been much lower than normal.  Daytime highs have been pushing 90 degrees, which I think is just too much for cool weather frogs.  The toads are breeding full force and the predicted continuation of warm weather should give them plenty of time to get their eggs laid before cool conditions return.

Toads usually stop calling when illuminated by a flashlight, but you can easily coax them back into action by producing a gurgly whistle.  In preparation of inflating the throat, a toad will inflate its body through a series of little breaths.  Then it will contract its body muscles to force the air into its throat pouch.  This guy has just finished the body inflation.

The call travels a long way.  It doesn’t take long for the pool to fill with toads.

Bullfrogs and Green Frogs are also wide awake and active.  They haven’t begun calling, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that happened soon.  There were no large frogs at all living in the Water Garden at the end of last season.  These found their way here during one of our warm late winter rains.

This large Bullfrog had some particularly handsome markings.  I’ll have to move him out of here before he begins making meals of the smaller frogs.  A pool with Bullfrogs usually turns into a pool with JUST Bullfrogs.