These events seems to get bigger every year. I say "these" because it will happen again in June, July, and August right before the full moon. More little toads are created in the pond each summer and more seem to appear out of nowhere to breed when the time is right. It started up again right after dark last night. One cute couple skipped the calling, the preliminaries, the foreplay and everything else and were already locked up laying eggs about 9:00PM. The usual routine is to start calling after dark. Check this out! This attracts more toads as the night goes on. There is a lot of jumping in and out of the pond and a lot of jumping on each other. Eventually a male gets paired with a female in a posture called "amplexus". Eggs are fertilized as they are laid in the water. This morning there was five pair of toads laying eggs in the pond. The party appears to be over now but the pond is full of eggs. Soon it will be full of tadpoles.
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