{"id":15778,"date":"2015-04-11T20:58:32","date_gmt":"2015-04-12T01:58:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=15778"},"modified":"2015-04-11T21:00:31","modified_gmt":"2015-04-12T02:00:31","slug":"american-toads-hop-to-mating-migration-on-southcoast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=15778","title":{"rendered":"American Toad Mating Migration on SouthCoast"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/POST-AT-009-960.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-15783\" style=\"text-align: justify;\" title=\"POST AT 009 480\" src=\"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/POST-AT-009-480.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"480\" height=\"643\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/POST-AT-009-480.jpg 480w, https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/POST-AT-009-480-223x300.jpg 223w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\u00c2\u00a0<em><strong><span style=\"color: #000000;\">American Toad (Anaxyrus\/Bufo americanus), April 2015<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000; text-align: justify;\">Darkness, drizzle and fog descended on the SouthCoast of Massachusetts Friday night. \u00c2\u00a0The Turtle Journal team bounced over deep potholed backroads to assess amphibian mating activity in local wetlands.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/IP4OpbE5kes\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Mating Chorus of Spring Peepers, Wood Frogs and American Toads<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/IP4OpbE5kes\" target=\"_blank\"><em><strong><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">IF YOU CAN&#8217;T SEE THE VIDEO ON YOUR iPAD, CLICK HERE.<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Leaving lights and civilization far behind, the volume and shrillness of mating calls intensified as night engulfed us like an eclipse. \u00c2\u00a0Spring peepers trilled mating invitations at frenzied pitch; wood frogs croaked and gurgled amphibian love songs in blank verse.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/POST-AT-003-960.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-15779\" style=\"text-align: center;\" title=\"POST AT 003 480\" src=\"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/POST-AT-003-480.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"480\" height=\"275\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/POST-AT-003-480.jpg 480w, https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/POST-AT-003-480-300x171.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em style=\"color: #000000; text-align: center;\"><strong>American Toad En Route to Mating Pond\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">As the muted beam of our headlights blurred through the mist, we sensed more than saw an army of wriggling, hopping shapes darting across the pathway, zigzagging from dense woodlands to rain-flooded bogs. \u00c2\u00a0We stepped outside and scooped up a specimen who stared back at us with face, eyes and expression that mirrored a diminutive alien. \u00c2\u00a0An army of aliens, Eastern American Toads, headed for spring mating. \u00c2\u00a0<span style=\"color: #000000;\">As American toads splashed into the bog like summer campers dashing to the old swimming hole, another, more subtle chirp joined the symphony, punctuated by a shrieking ululation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/POST-AT-006-960.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-15781\" title=\"POST AT 006 480\" src=\"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/POST-AT-006-480.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"480\" height=\"472\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/POST-AT-006-480.jpg 480w, https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/POST-AT-006-480-300x295.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em><strong>Buckets of American Toads Leapfrogging to Mating Ponds<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Despite thick fog and relentless drizzle, with flashlights in hand we cleared the roadway of a few buckets of\u00c2\u00a0American toads and helped them join their brothers and sisters in an\u00c2\u00a0amphibian night to be remembered. \u00c2\u00a0For us, too, Friday proved a memorable event, rare and powerful to witness an army of &#8220;aliens&#8221; marching through the wetland darkness.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00c2\u00a0American Toad (Anaxyrus\/Bufo americanus), April 2015 Darkness, drizzle and fog descended on the SouthCoast of Massachusetts Friday night. \u00c2\u00a0The Turtle Journal team bounced over deep potholed backroads to assess amphibian mating activity in local wetlands. Mating Chorus of Spring Peepers, Wood Frogs and American Toads IF YOU CAN&#8217;T SEE THE VIDEO ON YOUR iPAD, CLICK [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[402,826],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15778"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15778"}],"version-history":[{"count":28,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15778\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15814,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15778\/revisions\/15814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}