Children learn how to keep toads safe in migration

A VOLUNTEER with the Henley Toad Patrol visited a kindergarten next door to the woodland where a mass toad migration occurs.

Children aged between two and four at Denning Montessori, next door to Oakengrove Woods on the Culden Faw Estate, learned about the migration of toads, frogs and newts from Nicola Taylor, who has volunteered with the toad patrol for about 10 years.

Volunteers support toads during their annual migration by installing barriers at the edge of Marlow Road to catch toads so they can be safely carried to the spawning ponds on the other side of the road. This year the group carried 8,758 toads, 960 frogs and 229 smooth newts.

Ms Taylor spoke to the children about volunteer safety when crossing roads with buckets of amphibians including the importance of hi-vis jackets.

The children were showed models of frogs and toads and then shuffled like the amphibians as they sang songs.