When we get enough rain to fill roadside ditches (which is infrequent to rarely occurring), the frogs/toads start singing! I’ll be the first to admit that I know *nothing* about frogs and/or toads, including how to tell which is which. I think these probably are toads. …
Ah, scratch that. Now I think they might be a variety of “spadefoot” (is that a toad or a frog? apparently, it’s something else altogether). One of the characteristics is “a vertical pupil like a snake, while toads have horizontal pupils.” Very clearly, the critters I saw have very vertical pupils, though the pix I saw showed them rather round (!). Also, “their skin is much smoother and has very few or no warts.” And “their back feet have bony, sharp spades that are used for burrowing into soil, sand, or loose gravel.” I couldn’t see their feet very well – they were in a nice bit of water that must have seemed extravagant to them – but surely they ought to be able to burrow into something during the (mostly) dry times that we (mostly) have? This is the website where I found the above information, and I think they might be Mexican spadefoot.
These two were feeling amorous. 🙂
Those eyes!!
It’s pretty nice to have water around again. 🙂
Spring Creek Basin Mustangs 
pretty special little creatures, arent they?
We don’t see – or hear – them often enough.
Yayyyyy rain!!
>
Yay, indeed! 🙂
Glad for the moisture!
We are SO enormously grateful for the moisture!
TJ,
Every day I cherish your offering from Disappointment Valley. I must admit that I’m smitten with the “frogs”/toads. To me they indicate moisture and no pesticides. So when I hear and see them I personally celebrate things that have gone right.
Laura
They sure enough mean a fair quantity of moisture out here in these dry environs. 🙂 I’m glad you share our joy in the valley of NO disappointment! 🙂
https://marthakennedy.blog/2020/04/01/theyre-still-here/
I wanted to share a quotation from Desert Solitaire about frogs — it’s in that post. 💚
Oh, I agree about “spontaneous love and joy,” and I am NOT a human who finds their songs “bleak and dismal” but a sign of survival and life – that we have water again. 🙂 Thanks for sharing!
I love to hear them. Here’s a post with songs.
https://marthakennedy.blog/2020/04/20/frogs/
Me, too. 🙂 Thanks!
How absolutely wonderful, TJ! These are some kind of desert frog, and I never cease to be amazed at how they appear oh-so-suddenly after a series of good rains to grow and frolic and make babies, and then…just disappear until there is plenty of rain again. Here’s to those full roadside ditches and desert ponds and all the life they support! Love your photos of these guys.
One of nature’s little, amazing miracles of ongoing life. 🙂 Thanks!
I want some! And that is great you can find them.
I saw them squirting through the water and had to back up and get some pix! I don’t know much about them, but I love them … and I love that they have some water. 🙂