And it lasts days
males are so driven by their urges that it is not unusual to find a frantic heap all atop one another. Underneath, the unfortunate female often succumbs to suffocation.
Sometimes I find male toads tightly clasping on to a frog – it’s not only humans that occasionally pair up with the wrong partner.
The rarest amphibian in this country is the natterjack toad, a protected species. In Scotland, they are only found on the Solway Coast with the best known breeding site at the RSPB’S Mersehead Reserve in Dumfries & Galloway. A beautiful extensive area of wetland and saltmarsh, it’s the ultimate place for breeding waders and wintering waterfowl. In spring and summer, lapwings and skylarks serenade with their glorious avian orchestrations. As dusk falls, behind the dunes, natterjack toads begin their joyful percussion, their churring croaks carrying great distances on calm evenings long into the night.
Natterjacks differ from common toads. They are smaller and more active chasing after their invertebrate prey rather than waiting to ambush.
They have a distinctive yellow line down their backs, and greeny–gold eyes, and favour different habitat. Females lay single chains of spawn in pools situated behind the dune slacks, and by using impermanent pools, their hatching tadpoles are less likely to be predated by dragonfly larvae and small fish giving them a greater chance of success.
At Mersehead James Silvey has been working with the RSPB team on the reserve to help this precious toad. When he started in 2014 a massive storm surge had damaged the dune system. There were grave concerns for the toads hibernating in the sandy ground behind.
Surveys at that time revealed very few, and there were fears they had almost died out.
Dune systems are dynamic and alter constantly but in this particular storm, some that had previously been very high were beaten into submission by the sea, and were almost non-existent and the places favoured by the toads badly blasted with seawater.
Previous methods of surveying in the daytime were unreliable and so the team changed tactics and began looking for the toads on still nights, whilst listening for their persistent calls.
They also created a series of small pools behind the dunes and cleared invasive plants and encroaching scrub such as hawthorn to maintain the important salt marsh.
Though natterjacks, like all amphibians, have good years and bad, it seems the dedicated work to improve and boost their habitat has been extremely efficacious.
Estimates suggest that, in the past three years, they have increased five-fold. In the surveys of 2018 more than 300 toads were found, and some 2,000 toadlets seen in just a single day.
The RSPB has recently acquired more of the surrounding area. This important extension to their land will hopefully help to provide the intriguing natterjack toad with exactly the conditions it requires whilst safeguarding its future.
I cannot claim to have kissed many toads, but my passion for both species continues to grow, and this excellent positive news due entirely to the RSPB’S superb work, is cause for celebration, particularly when nature is up against it as never before.