A Lively Visitor

[gasp]
I startled one in the garden once - well, I don't know who was more startled, it or me.
I did manage to get it into a bucket and transferred it to a far corner of the garden as we were digging up the garden bed where it lived.

I am fine picking them up. I love them. Had it been a spider I would have died on the spot !

I couldn't pick one up!

Hopehope - that's strange, we had the same thing the last 2 nights. It looks like the same one we had last year at this time. He/she used to jump into the pet's water dish. Each time we put it into a bucket and returned it to he pond.
Any idea why they would want to come into the house? Our door is usually open at this time of the ear.

I don't mind picking up frogs, but there is something about toads...... I remember when we lived in Belgium in 970, driving back in the dark along a narrow lane that bordered some woods near our house and in the head lights it looked as if the path was moving in front of us. A whole host of toads of all sizes seemed to be migrating - if toads migrate. There were too many to count. Unfortunately, there was no room to turn the car round and go back, so we had to drive through, and I'm afraid over, them. I felt quite sick. DH did too; he had to hose the tyres down!

Many moons ago, we had floor covering in the kitchen which looked like large seaside pebbles. Our daughter was used to walking around in bare-feet, and suddenly, just where she had placed her foot a 'pebble' moved! I have never seen anyone jump so high from a standing position. Yes, it was a frog, and we can only assume the cat had brought it in, and got fed up with playing with it. We are o.k. with that sort of thing, and she just found her shoes, picked up the frog and deposited in the garden.

There is something a little bit yuck about the way toads walk. Memories of holidays in France and sitting on the terrace, every night at dusk the toads would come to the terrace. I think the food and candles attracted the flies and the toads knew that.

Oh Grey duster thats very yeuk. I have read about that sort of migration. To be caught up in it that way is the stuff of nightmares.

Toads are horrible! Frogs are ok.I don't quite know why!

Maybe because they're all warty?

Frogs used to hop through the garage of our previous house every Autumn. We never saw them in the Spring funnily enough. I have no idea where they were going as we didn't have a pond.

Of course toads migrate. This is a common road sign around these parts:

www.absperrtechnik24.de/Natur+und+Umweltschutzschild+Vorsicht+Kroetenwanderung+uw030.htm

news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/03/070327-monster-toad.html

Cane toads grow to be huge - that one is not the largest recorded by any means!
On a wet evening they like nothing better than sitting on the lawn [eek]

When we had an open coal fire, we kept the coal outside, in a coal bunker. One evening, OH went out to bring a scuttle of coal up to the living room. He chucked a good amount onto the fire but one need piece jumped back off! So he shovelled it up and threw it back on. When it jumped off a 2nd time he looked at it more closely and it was a very large frog! Whilst I was dashing out of the room, OH took it to the kitchen sink, rinsed the coal dust off it and put it back outside. It hopped off into the night, seemingly unscathed!

Oh heavens!
2 story's come to mind, a dear friend had a cat that would keep keep bringing frogs in to the house, after a while she was convinced that it was the same frog each time, she said that it had a sort of resigned look on its face!

Then poor DS1, who took his wellies in a bag, ready to go on school trip, and when he went to put them on, found a frog in one of them!

phoenix -

I am sitting here with tears of laughter streaming down my face! The frog in the coal bucket, put on the fire twice, the frog with a "sort of resigned look" on its face. Some of you really ought to be novelists such is your wonderful turn of phrase.
Years ago when we lived in Wendover, I came down the stairs and saw a large heap on the hall carpet. I thought one of the cats had done a whoopsie until it started hopping up the hall. My husband was in the RAF and on an operation so I had to deal with it. I opened the front door and used the shovel to encourage it to leave.

We had a toad who lived in our greenhouse for many years, we knew it was the same one as it one as it only had one eye. At the moment we have about 500 Toadpoles in our pond, I think they're fascinating creatures and great at eating slugs. They can live up to 40 years old.

Our pond is full of toadpoles at the moment, I love having them, part of the eco system. I found a huge one under a piece of wood two days ago.

Yesterday we started up the pool with a large dose of chlore shock, two hours later I found a large toad swimming in it! I picked him out and put him in the grass, I hope he survives.

We have the midwife toads here - the males keep the eggs on their backs - fascinating. Earlier in the year we found a female stuck to a males back - she must have been laying her eggs.

A very large toad used to knock on my back door every morning for the dog to go out and play...........they were mates until we moved house.

Ann - we used to have those midwife toads here but haven't seen (or heard) any recently. They make a sort of electronic beeping sound.
My favourites are the little bright green tree frogs - so cute.
I've got a photo of one somewhere, sitting on a white lily.

Quite a large frog had a narrow escape yesterday when I was cutting the grass. I spotted it just as I was about to push the mower over it. It was reluctant to be picked up so I had to encourage it to jump away out of mowing range.

Sorry but I really don't like them but have occasionally had one in the kitchen. I know I'm pathetic but I have to get my neighbour to come and get it out !

I love frogs! We have a pond in our garden which was there when we moved in, with lots of frogs in it. I gave our house the name "Casa Rana" (Frog House" in Spanish).Every year in around February we have a lot of romantic activity in the pond which results in lots of tadpoles. Unfortunately, we have a cat, who also loves frogs and is a bit prone to bringing them into the house as little gifts. We usually manage to rescue them and put them back in the pond, but occasionally we have one who hides so efficiently and is so traumatised that we find his poor little mummified corpse under the sofa or the fridge months later, which makes me very upset.