The Trip to Bountiful

To borrow a title from Horton Foote, our recent trip to DC was like a trip to bountiful. There were bountiful buds, bountiful blossoms, and even bountiful Bufo americanus (American toads).

First the buds; travel is an amazing thing isn’t it; especially if you are at the cusp of a new season. Spring is just beginning to think about coming to the Cape, the red buds on the Red maples are starting to swell, the willows are turning green and the forsythia probably popped while I was gone. As you travel south though, down 95, it’s as though you are witnessing one of those time lapse photography productions. The red buds are fully swollen in CT, the leaves are starting to unfurl in New Jersey and by the time you reach VA you have half the woods either in blossom or with catkins hanging down and new green leaves starting. When we reverse the trip home today, it will be equally amazing to watch those leaves shrink back into buds as we head north.

The bountiful blossoms of DC, of course, were the cherry trees that line the Tidal Basin and they were in peak bloom. We could not have picked a better time to go. Easter and the “glory all around us” coincided perfectly. I had also forgotten how prolific the Bradford pear trees are there, and they were white with blossoms. These trees don’t produce any pears, more the pity, for this would surely be a banner crop! It also felt like we were walking through one of those documentaries so popular in the 70’s that warned of the coming population explosions. I have never seen so many teeming masses, massing to see the beauty, but with so many cultures represented, they add to the palette too.

As for the bountiful bufo’s; there is a patch of woods, with a stream running through it, behind my daughters apartment. I heard the trilling of toads the first night we were there, and peepers, so to complete this perfect day, we headed down to the stream with a small flashlight. And Wow, there, where the stream spread out to marshy muck, was what seemed to be toads of biblical proportion! Somewhere on this Easter weekend people were no doubt watching Moses unleash a plague of toads on those stubborn Egyptians, while we had our own toad-o-rama right behind the house. More like “Animal House” than the “10 Commandments”, these toads, were like a frat house gone wild. Mating time, of course, and there was one female that obviously had a “Love Potion Number 9” thing going on. Spare us the details Pat! The incredible thing is realizing that all these toads are dispersed in these woods the rest of the year and we hardly come upon them.

And the peepers that were there, you would swear, all owned invisibility cloaks. It is astounding how they can be peeping no more than 1 foot away from you, yet search as you like, you can’t see them! At least we couldn’t. Although I have been on other night excursions were I saw them clearly. Go figure. What an unexpected treat though. I was also able to clearly demonstrate how toads defend themselves. If you pick them up, which I did, they pee abundantly all over you, which it did and is a good reason to let them go.

Now, a few questions this toady encounter raised were: 1) at some point in the night, did predators come through for easy pickings; snakes, raccoons etc.? After all, a better “fast food” place couldn’t be found if you tastes drifted towards all things amphibian and 2) Are there night shifts in the world of toad “amore”? I woke up a lot that night, and through the watches of the night, could hear they were still trilling on, right up until sunrise, and even then, one or two voices joined with the dawn chorus of birds. Amazing, their stamina, and to think, they will be doing this each night for about two weeks.

So, the toads are mating now in VA, but they won’t be trilling and calling until about mid April on the Cape, so consider this a preview of coming attractions and a reason to start listening for the trills, arm yourself with a better flashlight than I had and go look for yourselves. Females are considerably larger than the males, males have a swollen thumb on the front feet to aid in what is technically called “amplexus”, and if you pick one up, considering the aforementioned warning, you will see that the male has a darker throat then the female. Males also arrive a few days ahead of the ladies so wait a few days to let the whole gang arrive. Something to look forward to and I am glad I got a head start on spring so I could get you psyched!