Swimming toads

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Swimming toads

March 13, 2016 by Mike Powell

I usually think of seeing toads on dry land, but when it’s breeding time, they head to shallow pools of water. These Eastern American Toads (Anaxyrus americanus americanus) were swimming around this past Friday at Huntley Meadows Park in Northern Virginia.

Some of the toads were graceful swimmers, effortlessly skimming across the water. Others, however, seemed to have problems coordinating the actions of their limbs and floundered and splashed around a lot. The toads seemed to use a variety of strokes, though almost all of them used a variant of the frog kick with their rear legs.

How did the frogs get the naming rights for the kick? It could just as easily have been the “toad kick.” Perhaps marketing is a bit more difficult when you have as many warts as the average toad.

Posted in Amphibians, Nature, Photography, wildlife | Tagged Alexandria VA, Anaxyrus americanus americanus, Canon 50D, Eastern American Toad, Huntley Meadows Park, swimming toads, Tamron 150-600mm, toad | 8 Comments

8 Responses

on March 13, 2016 at 9:07 am | Reply New Hampshire Garden Solutions

I went looking yesterday and didn’t see (or hear) any frogs or toads yet. Maybe they know that it might snow here tomorrow afternoon.
on March 13, 2016 at 9:08 am | Reply shoreacres

Here’s what your photos evoked: a project in 10th grade biology class. It was dissection time. I suspect it was a frog rather than a toad, but as a first step, I removed the skin from my poor subject in one piece, laid it out in this very swimming position, and dried it.

Then, I carried it home, carefully placed in on my mother’s pillow, under the bedspread, and waited. It got the response I expected, and it was worth it. I still remember it as one of the highlights of my usually strait-laced adolescent life.
on March 13, 2016 at 9:57 am | Reply cihearu - Chronicles of a Bionic Woman

Those two middle pictures with the reflected eye are amazing!
on March 13, 2016 at 1:49 pm | Reply paws2smile

Great shots! 🙂 They are so cute!
on March 13, 2016 at 4:22 pm | Reply Laura (PA Pict)

Wonderful images. I love seeing all the different angles of the swimming limbs.
- on March 13, 2016 at 7:16 pm | Reply Mike Powell
  
  Thanks, Laura. I wasn’t sure that the legs underwater would be visible, but was pretty happy that they showed up as well as they do. Somehow I always this of frogs and toads as squat, but them to be athletic and long-limbed.
on March 14, 2016 at 8:18 am | Reply iseebeautyallaroundbyrobpaine

cool photos mike!
- on March 14, 2016 at 9:19 am | Reply Mike Powell
  
  I must confess that I didn’t know toads could swim like that. I’m seeing all kinds of cool things thanks to a greater awareness of my surroundings when I have my camera in my hands (and even when I don’t).