Framingham Nature Blog - How Toads Are Made

On may 6th, my friend and I found 2 American Toads in amplexus, or in other words they were having sex. For about the past week, i have been hearing the courtship call of the American Toad, from the Sudbury River, Hopbrook Wetlands, And a Pond at Drumlin Farm. Look it up. It sounds pretty cool.

The male would not let go, even when they got startled by us, the female would hop away from me like a normal toad, but the male's competitive instincts kept him locked onto her back. I got 3 decent pictures.

Last year, on may 8th, I found and tried to keep the tadpoles from this pond. I think now that they became crayfish food. If this year is exactly like last year, the eggs should hatch on the 28th, meaning they only stay an egg for about 3 days. Out of the probably 1 thousand tadpoles that will be in the puddle, only about 1 or 2 will survive, Which is of course why they have to produce that many eggs. The eggs are laid in strings of slime for protection.

I am not sure if all these eggs were produced just from the 2 breeding toads, or more from earlier in the week, but there were thousands. They were sticky, despite having been underwater. This helps the eggs anchor themselves around plants and twigs, if they had been layed in moving water. Some of the egg strings were literally tied into knots. I think a raccoon got to them, because all the eggs were gone by the end of the weekend.

The next big breeding event started about 2 weeks later when we started hearing trilling sounds coming from ponds near our house. The Cope's Grey Tree frog was starting up. On the 21st, Me and Miguel tried searching for one. We found an accessible pond near Walsh Middle School. It was deafening. We were actually hearing a combination of American Bullfrog, Northern Green Frog, And Cope's Grey Tree Frog. We found a few tree frogs. We did the same thing the next night. Pictures Below.