Thousands of spawning toads on Valentine’s night

THE annual early spring migration of toads to their spawning pond has been characterised this year by two unusual features: it has occurred much earlier than it does normally and there have been many more toads than normal.

The first of these is easily explained by the extremely mild, and often wet, weather there has been in February so far.

As long as the night-time temperature remains at, or above, 8C, toads and other amphibians will be on the move throughout the night.

The second feature is not so easily explained. Over the last 25 years the average annual toad total is 5,515.

But so far this year more than 10,000 toads have been helped across the A4155 Marlow Road by volunteers from the Henley Toad Patrol.

Most have been collected at the temporary barrier alongside the main road but some along Benhams Lane.

On one remarkable and memorable night, more than 20 volunteers collected at least 3,000 toads and took them across the road in buckets before releasing them into their spawning lake close to the River Thames.

That made the night of February 14, when it was extremely mild and wet, the busiest single night recorded in the 25 years for which reliable data is available.

Only twice before in that time has a single night’s toad tally passed 2,000 and both of those were more than a decade ago.

Some volunteers collected more than 250 toads during that one night. The following night was also very busy with more than 1,700 toads picked up by volunteers, many of whom had only just dried out from the drenching they received the previous night. The highest annual toad total recorded to date is 10,501, which occurred in the year 2010.

The total number collected already this year is now very close to that number so the record is likely to be broken.

The factors influencing the size of the spawning toad population are unknown. The limited information available suggests that other local toads-on-roads schemes are also recording unusually high numbers of toads this year.

However, there are also preliminary signs that the seasonal toad spawning migration might be drawing to a close. The number appearing at the barrier alongside has fallen substantially in the last few nights and some toads, having completed spawning, are now leaving the lake and heading “home”.

This means volunteers are having to cope with toads heading in both directions! Some toads still need to get to the lake to spawn, whereas others want to get back across the road and re-enter Oaken Grove on the Culden Faw Estate, where they will spend the rest of this year.

They will be hungry because toads do not eat before they spawn. In fact, they will not have eaten since they went into hibernation as winter approached last year.

Besides the toads, more than 250 frogs and 150 smooth (common) newts have been collected so far. These are much more typical numbers.