Buff Bufo Boreous

The other day Michelle encountered our garden toad once again. She questions whether it’s the same toad she found in June, or a different one. This one, she said, was noticeably larger, and lighter colored.

This time she didn’t pick it up. Instead she followed it around for a bit with a camera, and got some rather nice shots of it.

boreal toad

Handsome, isn’t he? (She?) (Photo: Michelle Zeiger.)

Because she didn’t pick it up, we don’t have any reliable size references. She laid her pocket knife next to it for one shot, and we estimate that this toad is at least slightly larger than the one we found in June, about 2½-3 inches long. The question is, does that mean this is a different toad, or has the toad she found before grown since then?

We suspect that it or they are eating well. Michelle hauled in a lilac salvaged from a re-landscaping project in town, and soon after found a slug in the garden, the first we’ve ever seen on this side of the ridge. That’s the last one she’s seen. We credit the toad.

As you can imagine, we’re walking very carefully in the garden these days. We don’t want to disturb our little neighbor.

Tonight is the first quarter moon. If you’re reading Mary Oliver’s Twelve Moons as a lunar calendar with me this year, it’s time to read another poem. Today’s poem is Two Horses.

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