i live on the River and every summer when it gets warm we see tadpoles and the last 3 years i have been picking up small little toads that have hatched in the river that are climbing up the bank and releasing them in my garden. The river is at a 12ft depth during the summer and come winter will get as high as 33 ft so if you do the math they have to climb up a minimum of at least 20ft of bank to get into my yard and garden. This year there are hundreds and hundreds of them for some unknown reason they are all over the yard and still heading up higher which will take them another 30 ft higher and onto the road and there seems to be 3 different kinds of color and pattern, small dots and large dots and light colored and a few very dark ones with really small dots. this pict is taken last week before they started climbing which was triggered by the rain we got

Very odd, Dick...I do hate to see them reach the road....I wonder if Fish & Game is seeing the same pattern elsewhere? Many strange things this year....

That sure is interesting! You are certainly right, something is unsettled, the ants in our garden are doing something similar, suddenly all over.

I know we have ants, but it just seems odd suddenly they are so visible.

I have honey bees now that it's finally warmed up some.....

Dick, I think the signs are there for telling us something unusual will happen, we just don't know what it is....

Mother is about to throw us another curve ball. Wish I had the instincts that the wild critters have.
Strever, I envy your toads! They are great garden helpers. Never seen one here, though when I was still working, I did find some in the drainage in the hills.

i seem to remember seeing toads all my life even in Orange county
but always in small qty like two or three a year.
i went up to the road and could only find one that had been pancaked
saw several on the way up the hill
speaking of Ants, i have always wondered what happens to them each winter
there are maybe a 100 colonies on the gravel bar and they are there every year
what happens them when the river rises ? how do they survive ?
i do not have any to speak of 30 feet above the river

Hmmmm...wonder if those ants do like the 'floating colonies' of fire ants seen in Texas since Harvey hit? Happy to hear that you don't have a lot of flattened toads on the road...I do remember one year up at Big Bear, when driving down by the lake and having to run over many, many frogs or toads...don't ever want to do that again...

the little guys are all over the yard and walking without stepping on one is a PIA
i picked one up to show some coloration
this first one is a dark color but not as dark as some, i have seen some all black


with yellow toes


then i shot a regular color one

Cute little suckers !....
About 60 years ago in a small town in the San Joaquin, I walked downtown one night to find my older stepbrother and all of the streets and sidewalks were covered with crickets...could not walk without stepping on them...I do not need toads under my feet either....

I miss our creek side frogs, there used to be a chorus of them during Spring, but have not heard them these past few years.