RAUK - Archived Forum - Posts by jwood:

We have just spotted what we think is probably a fire-bellied toad Bombina bombina in our garden in Hackney. Could anyone confirm?

It is about 4cm long, with a mid-brown colour on its upper surface with darker brown mottled patches. It has a warty, almost spiny upper surface and a smooth underside. The underside is dark brown with a bright orange mottled pattern. It seems to spend most of its time on the waterweed or in the shady corner of our pond with just its eyes breaking surface. It was making a 'hoop-hoop-hoop' noise that was repeated pretty continuously at the same pitch at about 1-2 second intervals.

It was showing rather agressive behaviour that has us worrying about the fate of other frogs/toads in our pond...

The toad has been present in our pond for about 3 weeks now. Normally it is quite timid, diving down below the surface whenever it spies us. However, around dusk after a particularly hot day in London, we had a few friends over and were playing music in the back garden. We noticed a regular 'hoop-hoop-hoop' accompaniment to the music, sounding remarkably similar to the 'hoop-hoop' noise often produced by Brazilian Samba bands (which was playing at the time).

Not only was this rather loud noise being produced by our toad, but it had been transformed from a timid pond-diving creature into a much more assertive beast. Every time one of the much larger common frogs tried to surface in the pond, the toad would swim rapidly towards it and push it back down below the surface. Only in doing this, did we spot its bright orange underside. We managed to get some photos by temporarily transferring it to a large glass jar.

Is this common terratorial behaviour for such toads?

The same evening we saw the reappearance of the Europen Tree Frog Hyla arborea. Does anyone know if either of these species are known to be established in London?

For more photos see, http://soi.city.ac.uk/~jwo/frog

Jo Wood,

Hackney, London.

Whatever the type of Bombina, it looks like we have at least two of them now in our pond. We have now seen them both at the same time. I was alerted to this when hearing their now regular evening song change from a single to two-tone call. It sounds like one of them consistently calls about a tone higher than the other.

I have managed to get photos of both of them from above - does this help with identification?

I have also heard similar more distant calls from other neighbouring gardens. Let's hope there are some females out there. Does anyone know if they have been known to breed 'in the wild' and establish colonies in the UK?

Jo Wood, Hackney.

The first...

and the second...

After an exciting couple of weeks finding both Bombina orientalis and Hyla arborea in our pond, we have now found the following:

For more photos, see also, http://www.soi.city.ac.uk/~jwo/frog/

It is about the size of a "normal" toad (~8cm long), but with rather unusual colourings. It has a pale sandy coloured, slightly warty underside, with a slightly darker top but with striking green mottles. The warts on the side of the body are more orange coloured. Eyes have horizontal elliptical pupils with a slightly green mottled iris. It moved by jumping rather than walking.

The identification key on the 'Whose tadpole' website would suggest this is the green toad Bufo viridis, but it does not match any of the photos I have seen very well. Perhaps it is just a common toad with unusual colourings?

Does anyone have any thoughts on what this might be?

Jo Wood, Hackney, London.

Thanks to Gemma, the Bufo viridis and the two Bombina orientalis were collected and moved to a warmer and more self-contained environment on Thursday 24th. We got a couple of photos just before they were carted off:

That isn't the end of the story though. Precisely 2 days later, yet another Bombina orientalis has found our pond. Again a male, but this one with more green on its upper surface:

For more photos see http://www.soi.city.ac.uk/~jwo/frog

Gemma - I will be in touch again! Daniel, I will also be in touch with you about a local leaflet/survey. Thanks to you both for your offers of help.

Jo, Hackney.

After our previous sightings of exotics in our garden, we have been talking with neighbours about where they might come from. In doing so, we discovered some more exciting residents of a pond two doors down.

The photos show 2 of about 8 that appear to be resident there. Each is around 6-8cm long, with a green back with a pronounced brighter green stripe down the middle. The underside is very pale, almost white. The rear big toe is very elongated. It makes a very lound 'rark' (RAUK?) sound when calling. Our neighbour says they puff out their cheeks at the same time. This all suggests either a Pool Frog Rana lessonae or possibly a Marsh Frog Rana ridibunda. Can anyone positively identify from the photo (as always, more photos can be found at http://www.soi.city.ac.uk/~jwo/frog) I am not sure what can be used to distingish between the two species.

The next question is where they have come from. We are about half a mile or so from the edge of Hackney Marshes where we have previously spotted what look like Pool/Marsh frogs. Could they have travelled from there? The fact that they have sucessfully spawned this year is itself interesting. Does anyone else know of any sightings in the area?

Jo.