During my hike yesterday at the Honey Creek State Natural Area I encountered about twenty different wildflowers in bloom and saw dozens of songbirds, sandhill cranes, a scarlet tanager, and flushed a wild turkey (those things make even more noise than grouse do when they go vertical - it's like having a machine gun go off by your feet).
The most pleasant encounter, however, occurred in a flood pool just above the current water level of the creek. In a 2-foot wide, 1-inch deep puddle that was already starting to shrink, I saw what appeared at first glance to be a convoluted string of black pearls. On closer exam the formation was actually a helix, and the total number of pearls was in the thousands.
You can click the image to see them at fullscreen magnification.
Hint: these are not fish eggs, or frog eggs...
These are toad eggs - much less often encountered than those of frogs. Frogs lay their eggs in masses; the extended helix is characteristic of toads.
ReplyDeleteSince the pool was clearly ephemeral, I decided to rescue a couple hundred eggs. Some may complain that I'm "interfering with natural processes," but some of these eggs will now to into our vivarium, and the others will be disributed to a handful of budding young naturalists in the neighborhood.
For those interested, here's a good page of toad information, and another on toad care and husbandry.
Be careful. When they mature they may kill off any perdition lurking around your house:/)
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