The toad population has apparently been spending more time near the Mighty Wappinger Creek, rather than around the house, during this very dry summer, so this small toad at the garage door came as a surprise:
A few days later, Mary spotted a larger toad tucked into the spice garden:
Small tree frogs sound off in the darkness around the house, but we’ve never seen any of them.
We wish them great success in their future bug hunts!
The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning 
The underrated toad. I had a barn toad a few years ago and also one for a few weeks this summer. They stay in the barn where it is cool and wait for insects to crawl under the door … pretty smart! I toss a few insects their way when I’m out there working. They snatch them up and cram the whole thing in their mouths. I keep a small plant tray of water out there and have found them sitting in it at times like a swimming pool.
“Yummy, yummy, yummy… Love, you’re such a sweet thing, good enough to eat thing”
— The Ohio Express or could be a crane too
In quest of frogs summer 2019
“Kurjet sammakkojahdissa kesällä 2019”
The background music in stores always reminds me those songs were crap, even when they were new.
Fancy cranes, though!
Toads are good folks and we wish more of ’em were around these days. Maybe we’re just not looking in the right places, because the larger of those two has obviously been around for a while.
We watched the mantis chow down on a moth a few days ago: it grabbed one wing in each paw, ate right down through the body, tossed the wings overboard, then returned to the watchful waiting state. Critters may not be much for table manners, but wow do they get it done!