Toad Orgy at Mud Pond!

I stopped by Mud Pond at Moreau Lake State Park yesterday, hoping to find the Susquehanna Cherry (Prunus susquehanae) in bloom on the powerline that runs along the top of the pond. This is a very low-growing native wild cherry, and sometimes I have difficulty locating it because even a big patch of it can hide among the tall grass.  But as I approached the place I remembered it growing, I was led right to it, both by its fragrance filling the air and also by the sound of dozens of buzzing bees enjoying its nectar. Yes, it was indeed in bloom! Pretty white flowers on sprawling twigs, the leaves just emerging.

But to tell the truth, I could hardly hear the bees buzzing for all the racket the American Toads were making, in the pond just down the hill. I had heard the shrill trilling of toads many times, but never so LOUD!!!   Curious, I pushed through the dogwood and honeysuckle shrubs to reach the shore of the pond, startled at almost every step by the presence of many toads underfoot. The toads, which usually hop quickly away from my footfall, seemed stunned and immobile, mesmerized, it seemed, by the thrilling sounds of love that filled the air. I had to be careful not to step on them.

But nothing prepared me for what I saw when I reached the water's edge: hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of toads, writhing and kicking and scrambling all over each other, roiling the surface of the pond for as far as I could see, all along the pond's northern shore. And the trilling was deafening!

Driven by Nature's urgent impetus, the toads were madly coupling, tripling, quadrupling, or even (as pictured here) SEXtupling!  All were scrambling to do what they were impelled to do to produce the next generation.

At least this couple seemed calmer in their coupling.  Perhaps (as his bulging throat indicated) he was whispering sweet nothings in her tympanum.

I did manage to take a video of this wild toad orgy, an event I had never witnessed before in all my life.  And I am 78 years old and grew up among ponds and swamps.

(Make sure your sound is on.  But not TOO loud!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bd4hlX8NirI&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR2sNwtEZ69H9pbmiKGAGoe9geQH8QVTJJhtotxe-MnCQyZLkHuuOCfjmFE