My toad issue is hot news… So many hits…

So anyway I thought an update was in order. I am writing this listening to a cacophony of toady beeps on a warm Sunday evening.

Midwife toads are not native to the UK. My dad, who visited today, was quite adamant about that and so we did a bit of googling.

According to the Bedfordshire Natural History Society some toads stowed away in a consignment of French ferns bound for a plant nursery in Ashburnam Road, Bedford. Presumably they had heard of our more benign treatment of amphibians over that of our French friends…

They successfully began a colony. This was around 1908.

Some young brothers asked if they could take a few for their garden on Bromham Road and so they moved that bit further towards my village. Quite how they made the last bit of the journey is unclear. Although it probably wasn’t on bicycles.

The midwife toad is so named because the male carries the eggs wrapped around its back legs until they are ready to hatch in shallow water. They are only the size of a 50p but their noise would imply they were a whole lot bigger.

Of course now I want to build a pond to help them out. Although they seem to be doing just fine on their own.