The Rural Voice, 2005-09, Page 58Rhea
Hamilton -
Seeger and
her husband
live near
Auburn. She
is a skilled
cook and
gardener.
By Rhea Hamilton -Seeger
He was perched on the step at the
back door, looking for all the world
like his next leap would take him
inside. But it was not his lucky day
and I carefully lifted his rather large
warty body back to the cool shade of
the garden.
Toads did not bother me when I
was a kid and they still fascinate me
today. This fellow was returned to the
garden a number of times this
summer but a few days later there he
would be again. perched on the step
waiting for the door to open and let
him in.
The delightful part of this tale
comes when my daughter came out
and 1 introduced her to the door
crasher. She was fascinated with his
bumps and ridges but expressed the
same fears I often hear people say.
"But won't I get warts if I touch
him?"
To show her how gentle and
harmless they can be, 1 gently rubbed
my finger along the side of his head.
To our amazement he leaned into my
touch and I continued to pet him. I
then moved to pet his other side and
he leaned into my hand again. What a
friendly sort.
Children either run wildly away
from toads or bend in close to touch.
Warts I have decided are the lead
cause for many people in avoiding
this remarkable creature. Toads have
a series of long parotid glands on
either side of their head as well as
prominent cranial crests and a wealth
of warts.
The ridges and bumps help us
identify whether we are looking at an
American toad, Canadian toad, or
Fowler's toad which is rare. Outside
our area is the Great Plains toad and
the Western toad found in British
54 THE RURAL VOICE
Gardening
A toadg guest comes to call
Columbia and central Alberta. And
thanks to cross breeding with the
American toad and either the
Canadian toad or the Fowlers toad.
identification becomes more difficult.
Warts have been given a bad rap.
You can't get warts from a toad but
you can get a sticky white poison
from their parotid glands if you
handle them roughly. When a dog
picks up a toad in its mouth it will
immediately drop it and you will see
a bit of foaming at the mouth. A
natural reaction to the sticky poison
from the toad. It is a defensive
feature.
We hear toads in the spring
happily trilling away. Between their
song and the peepers in the bush we
have sound indicators when spring
has arrived. Toads breed from March
to early June depending on the
warmth of the spring. The eggs are
laid in two strands around aquatic
vegetation in warm shallow ponds,
ditches or even large puddles. The
eggs 1 found in our fish pond were in
large clusters and were from the bull
frogs.
It only takes a few days before the
eggs hatch compared to 50 to 65 days
before the tadpoles change into
toadlets. The toadlets are among the
smallest newly transformed
amphibians and soon disappear into
the habitat. When we were kids we
often found the toadlets in the
window wells around the house. They
were no bigger around than a dime
and perfect miniatures of the adults.
This must be the year to enjoy a
few other amphibians in our yard. I
heard an unusual short sharp
quacking sound and went looking for
what I thought was a bird that may
have fallen out of its nest. What 1 did
find was a frantic little wood frog
with a snake firmly folding his thigh.
He was squawking and trying to pull
away to no avail. 1 don't see many
wood frogs around here so I raised
my garden spade and went after the
garter snake's tail.
I never appreciated the markings
on the garter snake before now. He
started moving through the ground
cover and between the sunlight and
the shade of the ground cover I had a
hard time following him and his
captive. A minute later I saw the
snake without a bulge and went
looking for the wounded wood frog:
never found him and the snake was
back in 15 minutes in hopes of
finishing his supper.
Wood frogs are about the size of a
loony and range from dark brown to
reddish tan with a dark mask. The
first time I saw one was a couple of
years ago and I had to go looking for
my amphibian book to identify it. We
have sighted salamanders around the
pond too.
Our local amphibians enjoy cool
dark places during the heat of the
day. Toads. wood frogs and even
salamanders enjoy soft soil that has
had plenty of compost. Compost
invites such tasty morsels like
millipedes, sow bugs and
earthworms. All food for the garden
guests. We have debris from the
wood pile scattered as mulch below
the lilacs behind the pond. making it
a great place for salamanders and
wood frogs.
Toad abodes in your garden can be
as simple as setting a six-inch clay
pot upside down in a shady part of
the garden. Break a bit of the lip
away for use as a doorway.
Youngsters can decorate the pot with
latex paint. You can also sink a clay
pot on its side about an inch into the
soil. Some web sites encourage the
placement of saucers of water but
with our West Nile cautions out there
I think you might be inviting more
mosquitoes than the toad can handle.
All in all, despite the dry spells this
summer our garden is a healthy place
for the critters.0