It rained a light rain at seven. It had been very warm and humid all day. The evening just SCREAMED perfect herping weather... Well, if you like frogs, toads, and salamanders! Otherwise I just never see any of the snakes when I road hunt at night in the summer.
I search through my closet and pluck out a plastic critter carrier that's covered in a year's worth of dust. Give it a quick wash. And I put my two year old to bed. Mom's already asleep. I then rummage around for a flashlight. Oh why oh why does it seem there's half a dozen non working ones laying around? Note to self, buy more flashlights and throw out the non working ones! I find a little maglight that will just have to do.
I head out around 10:30 and the only light is now in the horizon. Plus the constant flashing of lightning to the southwest from an incoming storm. I hop in my Bonneville and head off to the southwest corner of town. I get to the fair grounds and what's this? I see a deer... I pass without incident and get onto the highway.
Now it's been a year and funny how it takes a bit of time for ones eyes to readjust from just driving down the road to actually seeing what's ON the road. There IS a difference! Going from paying only attention to traffic and large objects such as deer and going higher speeds is different from learning to figure out is that a stone on the side of the road or a frog crouching? Every pebble looks like an amphibian! I'm going about thirty now getting myself out into the countryside and...another deer on the side of the road! This one bounds ahead a ways into the darkness and I think nothing more of it. As I've now spotted a familiar toad shape on the side that I'm now just passing...
I jump out of the car and run back, but I find nothing. Strike one! I get back into the car and keep moving. Up ahead I see eye shine on the side of the road. I pull the car over a bit to throw light onto this critter and discover a half grown grey and white cat hunting in the ditch. Guess I'm not the only hunter out tonight. Another deer! Man all I'll need to hunt em this year is a club!
I've now come to my gravel road turn off that intersects to the main highway that takes me to a different little used road that is actually my favorite hunting ground. As my lights light up the gravel I see the air is full of bugs. There is little wind at this time. But the flashing to the south is getting stronger. I flick on the radio only to hear the DJ tell me we are in a tornado watch till midnight and telling me that yeah, that storm to the south I'm seeing is a bit intense... Oh great... I push on for my better hunting ground. Zip onto the main highway, 281, and zip about a mile down it to the little green sign that says Bordulac, thataway... Bordulac is a tiny town with a couple houses and a bar... But tonight that paved road is deserted cept for me.
And I'm barely getting started down that road when a familiar toad looking object is spotted in the middle of the road. I hop out and over and snatch him up. Wow, this guy didn't even so much as wiggle! And it's a BIG one. I grin as I look him over in the headlamp of my car for a moment and see that it's an adult great plains toad. I'm collecting a few herps for the upcoming reptile show. I'd like to have a couple native stuff on a North Dakota Herps table.
I put him away into the carrier and drive a little ways further. I'm going about 15 miles an hour and hoping a couple of Goliath's friends are also out this evening. Here's a pic of Goliath after I get home.
As I'm driving along I notice pebbles on the road...and one hops.... HOPS? I stop the car and pile out. I dash over to the hopping pebble and pick it up. In the car's lights I see a familiar sight. Though it's only the beginning of July! But here it is, a baby spadefoot toad, approximately the size of a dime. I look around and notice more of them. And I walk down the roadway and see the road is covered here and there with baby spadefoots! They are everywhere! I pick up five of them and try my best to shoo some off the road. But I realize it's much like the bugs that are out. You just can't avoid them, there are too many! So I put these five in and realize...Goliath could EASILY eat these poor things!
I get back into the car and continue and...yet another deer! This deer keeps running down the road a bit, getting to the edge, watching me, and when I get close again, it heads down the road again, and comes to the edge, and watches again... Finally on the third try it decides to get suicidal and run across in front of me. But it's ok, I'm only going ten miles an hour, and watching the road covered in hopping pebbles....LOL! I get to another stretch further down and the road really gets dense with baby spadefoot toads. I get out just to look at them and stare in amazement. It's great to see so many amphibians when you hear so many times from different people that they are not doing well. And here these spadefoots, that I'm told aren't supposed to be found in this county...are alive and well! I see another deer run across the road up ahead.
I get back into the car and drive another four miles, cross a set of tracks and I find an adult spadefoot toad. I collect this madly hopping fellow. I wonder what people in houses along this road think. This guy driving along slowly, getting out, leaning down, jumping around like some madman...looking at his hand, and getting in the car to drive a little ways, to do it all over again. I'm surprised I haven't had the cop called out here to check me out!
It's starting to rain now and I try to hit up a stretch that seems to hold a population of Canadian toads in the past but I find nothing more than more baby spadefoots that seem to be out in mass tonight. I turn around and head on back the path I've come out on. As I turn onto the main stretch the wind picks up and I spot a toady figure sitting on the road. I hop out into the wind and rain and run at the toad. This one is very unlike Goliath and does a bunch of dashing hops to evade capture. I do my little war dance around the roadway and snatch him up. But only after the sixth attempt!
Just a little further another great plains toad is found and it's a pretty high contrast one. I can see the extra light colors on dark showing up well as I pull to a stop. This one too tries to escape but I took my training well from the last toad and my first hand swipe has him wriggling in my hand.
I decide it's good enough for the night and head for home. Twice I spot a raccoon zipping off the road and a couple more deer sightings. I continue to see the road alive with hopping baby spadefoot toads. I get back onto the highway, which, funny how that stays devoid of the hopping life I just got off of... It's only three miles now back to home and I get inside and seperate out the five tiny spadefoots from the big toads.
It's been a good night! TONS of spadefoot toads. Got three great plains toads. I imagine the baby plains toads will be on the roads in a couple weeks yet to come. I'm surprised to see spadefoot babies out so early, but truthfully, I must remember that it doesn't take them long from egg to metamorph... I didn't see a single frog. I was hoping to find a wood frog or two. That's a species I'm sure many people don't realize we have out here. But the last couple years I haven't seen as many as I have in years past. I'm sure their population levels cycles like anything else. I saw countless numbers of deer, the one cat, two raccoons, and a couple sets of eyes that ran off before I got an ID on. And though the radio kept talking about tornado watches and nasty weather to the south...it only rained off and on and the wind picked up in the end. A fun night for me! Here are the rest of the pics that I took of my catch when I got home. Enjoy!
