one of the Budgies flew out the shrubbery straight into my front wheel, coming to an
unfortunate end in a flurry of feathers. I was only eighteen at the time and in a panic I
stuffed the dead bird in to my jacket pocket. As luck would have it she was waiting at the
door when I arrived. We chatted, as usual, but I could not help noticing that she seemed
to be a little more reserved than usual. As I cycled away I looked down and there was the
Budgie's tail protruding like a flag from my coat pocket. Embarrassing moments I have
known. Happy days!
Toad breeding report: Little Leighs - March 2005
David Scott Court Hill, Church Lane, Little Leighs, Chelmsford, Essex, CM3 1PG
e-mail address: david.scott76@btopenworld.com Telephone: 01245 361475
Further to Jonathan Cranfield's report in the Essex Field Club Newsletter, May 2005,
the Toad breeding season here has been a great success. The Common Toad (Bufo
bufo) has established itself in the Church Broom wood area near Little Leighs Church
OSTL 719:167. This lake covers some three and half acres, and was dug for gravel in
1997/98, before being set up as fishing lake. Trees have been planted to form new
woodland, and the whole area is open to the public as a community open space. As the
trees are still small, the ground flora is abundant, including large numbers of the Bee
Orchid Ophrys apifera being seen in the last two years.
The sudden rise in temperature on March 16th, to a day reading of 19 degrees C, triggered
the start of the toad migration and at night about 170 toads were found dead in the road
the following morning, victims of traffic kill. The council signs were setup at once, and
the toad patrol volunteers, 4 local people, were organized. Over the next ten nights,
1301 toads were collected in the danger area of some 120 metres of Church Lane which
toads use to get to the breeding pond. The weather was fairly constant during this
period, allowing the migration to continue un-interrupted, temperatures up to 20 degrees
C by day and minimum of 6 degrees C by night.
The toads collected by the toad patrol were taken in buckets to the safety of the nearby
lake and released in their normal spawning area. Most numbers were picked up between
dusk and 9.30pm; the early evening road traffic was the main hazard. However, a
combination of the toad warning signs, yellow coats for the volunteers and the white
buckets slowed down the cars and many drivers stopped to express their interest. Toad
spawn was seen in the lake at the end of March and into early April.
Having changed from tadpoles baby toads were first seen to emerge from the water after
a shower of rain on 24th June and have been monitored as being found at least 130
metres from the breeding site a month later on 25* July. These were also observed
Essex Field Club Newsletter No. 48, September 2005 15