Not a fish

Wondering if anyone knows what this is. We interrupted it's slumber while digging a soil pit at a potential wetland restoration site in the Virginia coastal Plain.
I'm amazed that we even saw it at all, as it looked like a little clod of dirt. It was dug up in a corn field in an upland area.
(I don't really know of any herp forums that I could ask)

Still asleep:
 toad_1.JPG   41.49KB   0 downloads

Waking up:
 toad_2.JPG   35.52KB   0 downloads

Fully awake:
 toad_3.JPG   42.1KB   0 downloads

Burrowing back in:
 toad_4.JPG   60.95KB   0 downloads

Eastern spadefoot toad. Nice photos! These little guys will usually only be on the surface if it's raining or they're breeding.

Dave

Spadefoot toad (Scaphiopus holbrooki)

Very nice! The eastern spadefoot is the only frog east of the Mississippi that has those vertical cat-like pupils, so they're easy to ID.

You seldom see them except when they come out to breed, and they usually only do that in torrential downpours. Whole populations may skip breeding in a given year because it never rains hard enough for them. They love those sandy coastal plain soils; they're a bit less common in my clayey region.

Thanks guys. No wonder it didn't look familiar to me! Just curious - about how long are they above ground on average when it does rain hard enough? It's amazing to me that they get enough to eat/drink to live mostly in hibernation.

Thanks guys. No wonder it didn't look familiar to me! Just curious - about how long are they above ground on average when it does rain hard enough? It's amazing to me that they get enough to eat/drink to live mostly in hibernation.

The whole population may breed in a single night; I'm not sure how long they spend foraging before they burrow back down. Listen for them after a nasty storm: their call is medium-pitched and explosive; it sounds almost like a man vomiting- "Blurrrgh!" Some people compare it to the sounds made by young crows, but I've apparently never heard a young crow. And you probably won't hear just one- there will be tons of them or none at all. This is not a hard and fast rule, though- I have heard just one spadefoot calling in a swamp in north Alabama once. I was standing near a big mound of vegetation, and the call sounded a bit like that made by a hatchling alligator ready to leave the nest. I had just about convinced myself that I was about to be charged by an enraged momma gator when I finally spotted the little toad happily chirping away.

There are several other species of spadefoots in the arid central and western US and northern Mexico; S. holbrooki, despite living in the wet east, still behaves like a desert species. Like all amphibians, they can absorb considerable moisture from their surroundings thosugh their skin; unlike most amphibians, they are good at retaining that moisture. And because they are cold-blooded, they require very little energy to remain alive during their long inactive periods. Some desert anurans may remain underground for years between emergences.

Just thought this might be of interest. It has the calls of the frogs of GA (most, if not all, of which also live in VA).

You forgot the link, fishlvr!

Oops!

Haha. Here it is:
GA frogs

Very cool frog you found there. It is the only species left for me to find in Ohio where they are endangered.

There is a very good herp forum at www.fieldherpforum.com where more than a few of the NANFA members also post.

Andy

They often assume a very vivid bright if splotchy yellow color. Yours has a bit of yellow on it, but sometimes they can look like warty, rotten lemons or something. Very unusual. The eyes of course are distinctive as well, but you probably also noticed the hard little bladelike "dewclaws" on each back leg. Those are the "spades" giving this toad it's name.

In the same areas you find Spadefoots, you'll also often find another weird little frog called the Narrow-Mouthed. They have very pointy snouts and aren't much bigger than a cherry tomato. They're very rotund and funny looking, which is why I thought of cherry tomatoes. They use other burrows already dug by something else, though.
Well, around here that's the case, anyway. I don't know about where you live.

Nuts. There was a point to all this, but I got distracted by a phone call and forgot what it was.