The 'Shrill' Of It All

Our warmer weather has brought toads to our fish pond to find mates and lay eggs. A few days ago we had just one and it was calling out for hours and hours. I think it was trying to cuddle up to my ceramic frog.

A day passed and the shrill call continued day and night. Finally we looked out to see 3 more toads had joined our solo vocalist at night. Now we had several of them calling and it was deafening, but actually quite funny. They were still at it during the day, which we had never seen (or heard) before. Strangely, last night we were back to the original toad who was the biggest out of all of them. This morning everyone was gone and yet there haven't been any egg cases left behind. I guess that means they will all be back. I did read that toads return to the spot where they were hatched to lay their eggs, and that unlike frogs, they don't need to stick around to protect the eggs. Instead they leave a smelly film on the egg cases that deters predators. No wonder our goldfish don't attempt to eat the eggs and wait until the tadpoles are swimming around. It's all about the food chain.