Hi everyone. One of the few remaining species of wild herptiles found in the UK that I had yet to photograph were the Midwife Toads. This week I had the opportunity to visit a location in Cambridgeshire where I was given the chance to see and photograph these toads by Mark Hows. What an endearing little toad these are! They are far smaller than our Common Toad and usually only grow to around 50mm in length, with 40mm being the average size. They are also incredibly easy to photograph as they sit totally motionless when posed for a photo. I quickly managed a few shots that I was pleased with and not wanting to overstay my welcome I headed off home again.
As thrilled as I was to finally have some good quality shots of the midwife toads, photographing them at someone's house only fuelled my desire to find more for myself in other locations.
I decided to change my sat-nav route and instead of going straight home I headed for a village in Bedfordshire where the Midwife Toads are reported to have a stronghold, in search of more toads to photograph there.
Once there the village pond was fairly easy to find. I had a good look in the pond but was unable to see any signs of life so I began searching the grounds around the pond's edge. I carefully turned over some logs and rocks near to the pond but I only managed to find one juvenile Smooth Newt. It was at this point that a lady came out of her garden and I began chatting with her and some of the other neighbours about the Midwife Toads that were rumoured to be found in this village pond. The locals were all very familiar with the Midwife Toads in the village but most of them hadn't seen or heard any of them yet this year due to the late arrival of Spring. One of the ladies encouraged me to tag along that afternoon with the local ramblers group. I joined the group towards the end of their ramble and after a brief tour of the local graveyard I was invited back to the local church hall for tea and cakes. They were all so very friendly and welcoming that it was difficult to refuse. At the church hall conversation amongst the group quickly returned to the subject of the toads. Everyone was telling me stories of how and when they had seen or heard these toads in their gardens. As I was about to leave one old lady took me by the arm and said "I've got something to show you!" I worriedly allowed her to lead me down the road to a nearby house that had a smallish shallow pond in the front garden. When I looked in the pond it was full of huge Midwife Toad tadpoles as well as Smooth Newts. Despite the small size of the Midwife Toad their tadpoles are enormous with big bulbous heads and black spotted tails, making them very easy to distinguish form other tadpoles in the UK. Unfortunately I couldn't see any signs of adult toads in the pond though, just tadpoles. And these were almost impossible to photograph due to the reflections on the water's surface and I really didn't want to start using a net to fish out a tadpole to photograph. To my delight the lady next door suddenly called out "I've got some!" and she showed me two midwife toads that she'd found buried in the earth in her back garden. I went back into her garden with her and we managed to further locate another young Midwife Toad that was also buried in dirt beneath her guinea pigs enclosure. After photographing these little toads the light was now beginning to fail and I hung around just long enough to hear the first of the toads as they began their evening calls: "beep . . . . . beep . . . . . beep!" What a strange electronic-sounding noise they produce! Apparently these toads can be the cause of many sleepless nights for the residents who live in the area on warm evenings. What a great day it was. None of it would have been possible without the help from Mark and those kind enough to allow me the opportunity to photograph these toads, so I am extremely grateful for all they did to make these photos possible. The only midwife toad photo that now eludes me is the shot of the male carrying eggs wrapped around its back legs but hopefully I'll be back in this Bedfordshire village in the near future to see and photograph these toads again! Here are some shots from the day. Larger versions plus other Midwife Toad photos and information can be seen on my website here:
http://www.jasonsteelwildlifephotography.yolasite.com/midwife-toads.php" rel="nofollow - http://www.jasonsteelwildlifephotography.yolasite.com/midwife-toads.php
Jason
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