Great Plains Toad –
The sound of toads singing is a beautiful sound for ranch people. Toads and frogs only sing after a big rain. A rain that is deep and wet enough to reach them burrowed deep in the mud. When the moisture hits them, they crawl out and start singing so they can mate and get eggs laid ASAP before the playa lake water dries up.
The Great Plains Toad starts out as a tiny little tadpole in a pond or lake. The tadpoles will later grow short stumpy legs in a process called metamorphosis. Then they will lose the tail and become an adult frog, or toad. Their gills turn into lungs. Being able to live in water and on land makes them an amphibian.
I catch tadpoles and watch them change from fish into hopping toads whenever I can. It is like watching something magic happen in slow-motion right before your eyes.
