Toad trilling

Henry David Thoreau wrote about listening to the dream of the toads—the loud and beautiful trilling that comes from these amphibian male singers in mid-to-late-April. The toads have started "dreaming" this week, and tonight, a fairly chilly evening, I headed off to a promising vernal pool in the middle of a field to see if I could capture images of the dreamers. It took a fair amount of patience to pull this off, because the toads were a bit on the shy side and went silent as soon as I moved within close-up range. But they eventually accepted me and carried on as if I weren't there. The vernal pool edges vibrated with trills, as each male inflated his vocal sac and used it as a resonator. There are almost certainly ladies listening in the shadows as they try to determine who sings with the most power and duration—they're interested in marathon runners, not sprinters—but I guess the girls were just starting to evaluate the guys. No one was pairing up yet. Soon enough, but not tonight.