Tag: Toad Migration

The Toad Diaspora

~ quantumdreamer ~ Leave a comment

The annual toad diaspora has begun. It is a part of the cycle of life here on the compound. Each January and February both toads and frogs gather in the pond for reproduction. They turn up, shag like loonies, and are gone in less than a fortnight.

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The top count walking around the pond has been something in excess of 100 individuals. There are more toads than frogs. There are more amphibians which I cannot see from the bank. At a conversion rate of 10 legged new born individuals per toad that means ~1000 micro-toads to migrate away in search of their own territory. It could be ten or a hundred times more. I assume they have a migratory diaspora which radiates outwards from the pond centre.

They are small enough to get through the ventilation gaps in the double glazed window-doors. Whenever it rains the little blighters are on the move. The total of toad humane removal events so far is around ten. We have to beat the cat. If you don’t save them, they desiccate. Generally the migration tails off towards the end of September. It depends upon the rain.

Now we are on toad watch….

100 Toads and Weird Dreams

~ quantumdreamer ~ Leave a comment

We are having a bit of a warm and windy spell and the toad count in the pond has gone from three to well over one hundred in the last two days. They may be a mix of toads and frogs. I’ll do a rough tally tomorrow. There seems to be more females than last year.

There has been no disturbance of Coypu witness sticks for three nights in a row.

I don’t know if Trump is deliberately being thick or if Putin has some dirt on him. Lavrov and Putin have been around a long time, KGB / FSB are a tad more subtle than ranting on social media. The USA has a long history of complacency. They are cocksure and full of themselves. Then something bad happens which they do not anticipate and then they massively over react like an offended teenage gang member. I don’t think some in the USA understand that they are “tolerated” as opposed to welcome. BRICS must be well happy. A country which consistently reneges on contacts and agreements is not trustworthy anymore. The “deals” are no longer worth the paper they are written on.

Where things go from here is hard to say, but Trump is not winning friends outside the Kremlin.

I continue to have weird dreams on quasi-grandiose subjects. I would rate the chance of me ever sat at table with Uncle Boris as vanishingly small.

I have taken a view of non-intervention. In the past I have provided a lead for some people. I have noted that when I stopped doing this, they had no idea how to interact with me. It is funny, there appeared to be some kind of vacuum. They were kind of waiting for me, I did nothing so nothing happened. In the past so many of my attempts were rebuffed, I have stopped trying.

It is said that Bodhidharma sat for nine years in a cave staring at a wall.

I have kind of stopped inflicting myself on others.

I wonder what Trumpian soap opera will be in the next episode / instalment?

Wasn’t “Dallas” a thing mostly of the eighties? It is a bit old-fashioned.

Coypu and the Lotus Wars

~ quantumdreamer ~ Leave a comment

It is very important that the lotus grows out of the mud, the mire, and strecthes its radiant head above water to soak in the solar bounty.

Here is the Heron recorded after dawn. In the pond you can see the proto-lotuses starting to form. They are to the top middle of the video.

Turn the sound up to hear the birdsong….

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We finished reinforcing the wire fence yesterday. But, here is Moma Coypu coming from the left up from the river. She disturbs the witness sticks…

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She is joined by junior coypu, who heads off in the direction of the lotuses for supper…

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After dining junior comes back to Moma and she grooms the little bastard.

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About and hour or so before dawn Moma heads back in the general direction of the river.

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If you listen carefully you can hear an owl.

Somehow they are getting though the electric fence. I’ll put the camera out to observe and will probbaly make a five strander. The toad migration has started and unfortunatley we electrocuted a female toad the other night. I need to make sure there is good clearence at the bottom…

Preparing for the Annual Toad Migration

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Earlier this year, in February, I put up a three strand electric fence to try to deter the Coypu coming onto the property and eating all the lotuses on the pond. It worked.

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This year we had a magnificent display of flowers and no Coypu turds. The availability of fresh shoots in the wild has dropped as we come further into winter. They managed to find a way in by the bridge in October. Here are four of the blighters I blocked this off with wire mesh at end of October.

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The family of Coypu coming up from the river…

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So, we have had no Coypu sign until about a week ago. I found some chewed iris shoots. I set up the trail camera and got one returning to the river hesitantly through the electric fence. I did not see it get shocked but I heard the audible click as 0.25 J earthed at kilo Volts through the Coypu. The animal seemed to be coming from another direction. I set up witness sticks on the river bank and by a hole in the fence. The little bugger was coming through the fence. I blocked it last night with one big and one medium sized pine fire logs. He shifted the smaller log last night. I saw some Coypu sign, damaged iris shoots. There are two fairly hefty fire logs there now.

Yesterday evening when checking the fence I came upon an electrocuted toad. For an animal ~50-100g I guess 0.25 J is too much. I am surprised that it was on the move. We have had an inordinately mild time of it. In general, we get up to 60 toads and frogs at any one time in the pond for mating. I wondered if the annual migration is beginning early.

Today I have put a few more posts up near the old ingress route for the Coypu and lifted the bottom wire so that at no point is it less than 6cm from the ground. That should be enough room for the amphibians but not enough for the Coypu…

We shall soon see if the toad migration proper is beginning early.

Another harbinger of anthropogenic planetary warming?