Wisconsin Area - Toads?

[LilyPad]

Has anyone in the Wisconsin area, or northern midwest noticed a decline in toads after the long winter? We typically find them all over our yard and gardens. When the toadlets morph, we have hundreds in our yard at any one time, hard to walk and cut the grass trying to avoid the toads. Even before that though, they're everywhere. I have yet to see one this year. I'm wondering if it's possible that the long-term below average temperatures cut down their population. I have heard grey tree frogs, spring peepers, northern green and leopard frogs, and bullfrogs, but have not seen a single toad!

At first I thought it was because of a late spring, but with everything else out of hibernation, they should have dug up by now too.

[LilyPad]

Kids found some tonight 1 fowlers and an American toad...1 I couldn't tell. They let them go right after the photog.

[UncleChester]

Hi Amy,

I'm just east of you, across the lakes so we had a similar long and very cold winter. The toads here showed up in the breeding ponds sporadically about a month ago and were in full chorus 3 weeks back, so there's now a pile of little toad tadpoles swimming around. They were maybe a week behind compared to 2013.

None of the tadpoles have morphed yet, but the older ones started turning up on land about 2 or 3 weeks ago and are now all over the place. The little guy below was found 2 weeks back. Nothing scientific of course, but they seem to have wintered just fine over here.

The Green Frogs and Leopard Frogs back at our big pond are another story. It's very large, spring fed, 50 or 60' across and about 8' deep in the middle. Almost all the frogs that tried to winter in it appear to have been wiped out with many belly up corpses as harsh evidence. Some of last years Green Frog Tadpoles survived, but nothing like the huge populations of overwintering tadpoles and frogs we usually have. A few adults have recently showed up, but from my near daily trips to this pond the last couple months, I'm fairly certain they didn't winter in it. On the plus side, this tadpole shortage has allowed billions of mosquito larva to survive to adult hood and make their way out of the pond and feast upon me, so that's nice I guess.

[LilyPad]

Ah Brian, that's so disappointing. I guess it's the way of life, but even in a typical season it's a struggle for them to survive. The green frogs and leopard frogs have been very loud in the pond behind my property. So it doesn't seem to have affected them too harshly. I haven't wandered back there to take a peek yet though, maybe one day when we get a break from this rain I'll walk back there to get a quick number estimate.

We've found 8 toads throughout our yard so far, typically by this point in the season, we've found well over 100. The 8 that we did find are all on the small side, most are just over an inch long, with exception of the one my daughter is holding in the picture I posted. That's the only one we've found that size. Normally, we find several 3" toads hanging right around the doorway where we have our solar lights.

You're right though, the harsh winter has definitely created an excess in mosquitoes!

[Frogman1031]

Similar things are happening here in New york. Pickerel frogs used to plague
our yard. They were the biggest ones i had ever seen. I even raised one from a tadpole. This year no pickerel frogs. Helios was the only toad although they aren't common here anyway. Paddy will be happy about this; the grey tree frog population has EXPLODED because in the summer last year, a pair of goshawks, a pair of peregrine falcons and two pairs of coopers hawks moved in amd started eating all their predators. In my lake two years ago i gound 50 tads in one day but last year i found 10 for tge whole year. Its really sad

[Strider18]

Hi Amy,

I'm just east of you, across the lakes so we had a similar long and very cold winter. The toads here showed up in the breeding ponds sporadically about a month ago and were in full chorus 3 weeks back, so there's now a pile of little toad tadpoles swimming around. They were maybe a week behind compared to 2013.

None of the tadpoles have morphed yet, but the older ones started turning up on land about 2 or 3 weeks ago and are now all over the place. The little guy below was found 2 weeks back. Nothing scientific of course, but they seem to have wintered just fine over here.

The Green Frogs and Leopard Frogs back at our big pond are another story. It's very large, spring fed, 50 or 60' across and about 8' deep in the middle. Almost all the frogs that tried to winter in it appear to have been wiped out with many belly up corpses as harsh evidence. Some of last years Green Frog Tadpoles survived, but nothing like the huge populations of overwintering tadpoles and frogs we usually have. A few adults have recently showed up, but from my near daily trips to this pond the last couple months, I'm fairly certain they didn't winter in it. On the plus side, this tadpole shortage has allowed billions of mosquito larva to survive to adult hood and make their way out of the pond and feast upon me, so that's nice I guess.

If I had a pond that big...(thought bubble pops up over head)... Snd ya mosquitos are lovely out here this year like always :/ And I am sorry about all of the dead frogs

[LilyPad]

Eli, we have had more birds of prey in our area in the last 5 years than we've ever had. We have peregrine falcons, red tailed hawks, and two different types of owls. In that same period of time, the grey tree frog population has soared. 10 years ago, I never found a single tree frog in our yard. Now I hear them everywhere.

The toads have always been fun too though. When we still had our yellow lab last summer, (he passed away last August, RIP Zeke, nearly 16 awesome years) he would be out napping on his bed, and 2 or 3 little toads would be sitting on his bed, I'm assuming enjoying the warmth as the bed always heated up in the sun.

[LilyPad]

Toadlets galore!!!!





Mix of Fowlers and American. We have to be very careful where we step! They are everywhere.