Sunday, June 22, 2014

Loads and Loads of Tiny Toads

As I have noted before, I have a fondness for toads, but not like that. At this time of year, newly metamorphosed little toads emerge from a pond on site (in some communities, traffic is redirected when the toadlings put their tadpolish ways behind them and take to the land. The site I typically work at is toad heaven- there is plenty of green space for my batrachian buddies to live their toadly lives.

Last night, I found a half dozen little toads in the stairwell to one of our buildings. While the area is a perfect place for a toad to establish itself, being cool and shady, and full of delicious bugs, it's a dead end for a small toad- they can get down the stairway but they can't get up. I was able to coax the little fellers onto my hand with a gentle finger nudge, and I relocated them to a pachysandra patch. Here's one of my little transportees:




This is not the first time I've had to do a stairwell intervention, and it probably won't be the last.

The post title is the first line of a couplet that I wrote, when I was writing short bits of doggerel in alarming profusion:

Loads and loads of tiny toads,
Live by the sides of country roads.


The same period of bizarre creative ferment also produced the following:

Crepuscular critters give the jitters,
But creatures of night fill me with fright.


It was a passing phase... thankfully!

7 comments:

Smut Clyde said...

Last night, I found a half dozen little toads in the stairwell to one of our buildings.

That is just the beginning. Your life slowly segues into a Clark Ashton Smith horror story.

ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© said...

I too, found a tiny toad yesterday.
~

OBS said...

Perhaps you have found the home of the Toads of The Short Forest

Vixen Strangely said...

omg so cute. It reminds me of one of the very few times I wanted to put on my grown-up voice and ream out some kids--it was at a park with a pond hosting squeejillions of tadpoles. Some of us were tossing in bits of bread, and watching tadpoles eat bread is ridiculously satisfying. And then some a-hole kids tossed in stones. I dunno why more folks can't be nice to our amphibian planet cohabitants.

Big Bad Bald Bastard said...

That is just the beginning. Your life slowly segues into a Clark Ashton Smith horror story.

I think it segues into a Clark Ashton Smith buddy comedy like The Door to Saturn.

I too, found a tiny toad yesterday.

Aren't they darling?

Perhaps you have found the home of the Toads of The Short Forest

I should work in such a groovy place!

And then some a-hole kids tossed in stones. I dunno why more folks can't be nice to our amphibian planet cohabitants.

I hope those kids got a gazillion mosquito bites.

Pen Ultimate said...

Teensy-Tiny Toad Mode.

bbkf said...

one of the things maeve likes best about spring is terrorizing the tiny toads in our backyard...but now it's bunny season, so she's all over that instead...