It’s a Sunday afternoon in March. Yet again, I’m opening and checking my weather app. As a regular volunteer for the Charlcombe Lane Toad Patrol in Bath, this is something I do frequently at this time of year.
Late February to March is when the UK’s adult amphibians emerge from their overwintering sites and embark on often long and perilous journeys to their natal breeding grounds, where they’ll seek a mate. But they tend to be extremely picky about conditions for travel. They prefer mild, damp evenings, just as dusk is turning to night, with temperatures hovering around 8-10˚C.
If the weather has been cold and dry, they’ll patiently wait it out – which means anyone out on toad patrol is in for a quiet night.
As the days pass, the mercury starts to rise and rainclouds begin to gather. Anticipation starts to build of a mass movement involving hundreds of amphibians. Today, this anticipation is palpable among my fellow patrollers, also keeping a close eye on the weather forecast, as conditions are looking incredibly promising.
The rain has been falling since teatime and conditions are milder. We don’t know it yet, but we are about to witness our largest migration event of the year.
"A staggering 20 tonnes of toads are estimated to be killed on UK roads every year"
At 7pm, clad in waterproofs and walking boots and equipped with a bucket, gloves and torch, I head out to my patrol site – a half-mile stretch of Charlcombe Lane on the northern outskirts of Bath. What may appear an unassuming back road is in fact a dangerous barrier separating the local toads, frogs and newts from their breeding pond at the bottom of this horseshoe-shaped valley.
Road traffic is a huge threat to migrating amphibians – a staggering 20 tonnes of toads are estimated to be killed on UK roads every year. This is why we’re here: to help them cross over safely.
Just like going out to bat in a cricket match, you need to get your eye in. It takes time to spot amphibians, even with powerful torches. After a few minutes’ searching, I see my first toad – a male nestling in a pile of wet leaves at the side of the road. I carefully pick him up and pop him in my bucket. I then scoop up a couple of large females, and shortly afterwards, another male walking awkwardly on long back legs.
I spy a frog making a dash for it and a newt rooted to the spot on the tarmac – they go in separate buckets. I’ve never seen so many amphibians in one place.
"We’ve helped an incredible 745 individuals"
Luckily, there are 20 volunteers out tonight, spread along the patrol site. In the distance, through the drizzle, I can see the rapid movements of torch beams, the bright metallic flashes of hi-vis jackets and the silhouettes of dark figures crouched over buckets.
I carry my charges across the road and deposit them safely in the vegetation on the other side, from where they can continue their journey down to the water. We work quickly and carefully, collecting amphibians non-stop for two hours, and by the end the chill has crept under my gloves, hat and jacket.
When the surge finally dwindles and the stragglers have come and gone, we tally up the numbers. We’ve helped an incredible 745 individuals, a figure that will account for 30 per cent of our total for the season.
It’s a high number compared to many patrols, and what makes a huge difference at this site is that the road is closed during the six-week breeding season, a measure introduced in 2003.
“That was a gamechanger,” says patrol manager Helen Hobbs, who has been meticulously organising the Charlcombe patrol for the past 22 years. “When the road closed, the casualty rate dropped from 62 per cent to 7.5 per cent the following year, and has continued falling ever since. The amphibians here now have a fighting chance.”
Despite the intervention, the patrol remains essential. Vehicle access is still permitted for the lane’s residents, and some drivers ignore the closure altogether. Moreover, amphibians often zig-zag along a road or may freeze. Without the patrol, there would still be significant casualties.
The concept of toad patrolling started in Hertfordshire back in 1973. Today, there are 203 patrols operating in communities across the UK, from Anglesey to Ipswich, all managed and supported by volunteers.
One of the newest is the three-year-old Milngavie Library patrol in West Glasgow, which has grown from two patrollers – Lorna Williamson and her partner – to 15 in just a couple of years.
“It’s a major logistical operation,” says Lorna, “involving lots of colour coding and keeping in touch with volunteers. But having all evenings covered really makes a difference, especially when the conditions are pretty good for a mass movement of toads.”
Lorna’s love of toads started early. When she was growing up, her father worked on a caravan park in west Scotland. Noticing the movement of amphibians at the site entrance, Lorna put up a hand-painted sign that read ‘Slow! Toads!’.
She’s come a long way in the 18 years since, and a diary entry from April last year sums up what patrolling means to her: “I’m filled with joy at what we achieved and the community of toad lovers that’s been formed. It has brought healing to my body and true purpose to my existence. Not participating wasn’t an option because – who else was going to save the toads?”
"Data collected by patrols has been absolutely vital"
But toad patrolling is about more than just saving amphibians on the ground. This combination of community-driven conservation and long-running citizen science is providing scientists and conservation organisations, such as Froglife, with a much clearer and incredibly useful picture of the population trends for toads, newts and frogs in the UK.
“For scientists who want to understand what is happening to a once widespread species, such as the common toad, data collected by patrols has been absolutely vital – it’s the only information that we have,” says Silviu Petrovan, a conservationist based at the University of Cambridge.
“So much of the focus of conservation has been on the rarer species that are seen as at immediate risk. But this has, perhaps unintentionally, meant that we’ve missed the dramatic declines in smaller and often ignored taxa, such as toads, that we regard as common.”
"Common toads have declined by 68 per cent in just 30 years"
Like hedgehogs, common toads operate at a landscape scale. They can move frequently over large distances and any major barriers or threats encountered along their routes can be catastrophic for populations over time.
Indeed, numbers of these two much-loved British species have plummeted – in 2016, Silviu co-authored a study that showed that common toads have declined by 68 per cent in just 30 years.
“Toads rely on being able to freely move around a landscape for their breeding cycle,” says John Wilkinson from Amphibian and Reptile Conservation. “They are very faithful to their breeding grounds, returning every year and often travelling miles back to the same pond. Every time they set off it’s a potentially very perilous journey from crossing busy roads to navigating major obstacles such as new housing developments.”
Since 2011, volunteers have been patrolling a two-mile stretch of road that has become a rat-run between the towns of Weston-Super-Mare and Cheddar in Somerset. This is the Winscombe Toad Patrol, which featured on the BBC’s Wild Isles.
“With the large increase in traffic along this road, we’ve seen a 57 per cent decline in the number of toads recorded in just six years, despite having 40 regular patrollers,” explains patrol manager Joy Trusler.
“Yes, there has been a loss of ponds and the challenges of small new developments, but the rise in the amount of people driving along this officially designated ‘C’ road is having a very negative impact, with a toad mortality rate of 17 per cent.”
Warning signs are finally starting to reverse the trend in terms of driver awareness, “and the next stage is to work with the local council on 20 miles-per-hour speed limits”.
"Climate change is one of the biggest challenges facing amphibians today"
Alongside road traffic, habitat loss and fragmentation due to the intensification of farming and development are among the biggest challenges facing amphibians today. Another is climate change.
Milder winters are leading to amphibians waking up from their hibernation more frequently, which means that they use more energy, increasing the likelihood that they won’t survive for the migration season; drier and warmer summers cause ponds to dry out sooner, with potentially huge implications for the survival of froglets and toadlets. There is also the rise of new diseases such as chytrid fungus, to which toads are very susceptible.
“Toad patrols are an incredibly important way to create a national debate about a better future for amphibians,” says Silviu. “Volunteers can mobilise communities across the UK to get behind the policy changes and interventions.”
"Changes need to start from a landscape approach"
Changes need to start from a landscape approach – which would bring benefits for other species too, but there is a host of other practical measures that can help. Wildlife-friendly gully pots could reduce high casualty rates when amphibians get trapped in drains.
Mapping out migration routes would allow mitigation and offset measures, such as the building of new ponds, to be carried out at the most beneficial sites. Toad tunnels under roads can be helpful in the right situations, as can temporary fencing that directs migrating amphibians to spots where volunteers can collect them.
There is also the option for greater protection. Before the pandemic, the Joint Nature Conservation Committee recognised the serious decline in common toad populations and included good breeding colonies as a potential condition for the designation of a Site of Special Scientific Interest.
In the meantime, thousands of toad patrollers across the country continue to do brilliant work to keep local amphibian populations alive and kicking. Their torchlit presence on drizzly March evenings is growing awareness of what is happening to the wildlife around us.
The clock is ticking, but if we continue to stand up for our frogs, newts and toads, we can ensure that they have the space to flourish.
At a glance: The amphibian year
WINTER Amphibians are in hibernation in dead wood, piles of leaves, compost heaps or at the bottom of ponds.
SPRING Temperatures rise, bringing mild, wet days. Amphibians wake up with the instinct to find a mate – and return to their breeding grounds.
SUMMER Adults keep cool in damp, shady spots in gardens or near natal ponds. Toadlets and froglets start to move en mass. Newtlets also leave their breeding ponds.
AUTUMN Amphibians start looking for places to spend the winter, often returning to a ‘des res’ from previous years.
