Spadefoot up close

The Spadefoot recording I sent out last night exerted considerable charm, and my good friend Dave Skelly, a Yale ecologist I've written about, collected with, learned from, and worked with, pronounced it "awesome" and requested a guided tour. Dave, I discovered, had just been named the new director of the Peabody Museum of Natural History, so this would be a documentation foray—there may be no bona fide records of the Spadefoot in my part of the state—and a great way for the eminent research and his grad student, Max Lambert, to spend a night out. I didn't have high hopes for success, since, an hour before Dave and Max arrived, I hadn't heard any calls from the pond that had held the toads. But we got one weak "bleat" when we got to the water, and Max, a real trouper, promptly waded in and soon managed to snag an adult specimen. It's a very mellow, drop-dead-gorgeous amphibian, with marvelous eyes, and it didn't seem at all flustered about posing on the ground or in our hands. I hope our efforts can lead to the ability to protect the species, which is endangered in Connecticut. I also hope it didn't mind our intrusion into its nighttime activities. In any event, it didn't linger to say goodbye when we released it back into the water.