Toads!

After volunteering with the Wildlife Trust last thursday at Farndon Willow Holt, we stopped off at Ploughman's wood near Lambley on the way back. It was wonderful walking through the wood with lots of Wood Anenomes and other woodland flowers carpeting the ground. We checked out the small pond on the southern edge of the wood on our way out, and was greeted with a huge congregation of mating toads. There must have been hundreds of toads in the pond making a massive racket and fighting against each other to attatch themselves to the females. It was a true spectacle to behold, with the toads allowing us to get ridiculously close to observe them.

The next day i finished work early so got on my bike and cycled to the reserve again with my camera, stopping off at another reserve in Lambley to see if there were any more amphibians there, but there weren't that many... At Ploughman's however, there were still many toads about and although the light was failing, i still managed to get plenty of shots.

Here's a selection of the best images.