Spectacular Toads

Although I am always on the lookout for early season butterflies and moths, the occasion that I look forward to most of all in early spring, is the spectacle of toads returning to their breeding pools during March. 

They are one of my favourite creatures and I enjoy watching their antics as males battle with each other for females. Whilst these tussles can be entertaining to the human observer, they can be violent and occasionally fatal.

The males are highly charged during the breeding season and you can often see a writhing ball of male toads fighting for one female. During these tussles, females can sometimes be accidentally drowned.

Common Toad (Bufo bufo)

A male interloper is attempting to supplant another male from his prime position but eventually gives up.

Established pairs can eventually find a quiet place to get away from the melee.

A lone male basking in the sunshine.

Pairs often gather together in prime spawning areas

Scarlet Elf-cup

 When you come across this attractive cup fungus during the colder months of the year, you might think that it will be easy to identify but you would be wrong. It could be one of two virtually indistinguishable species.

Whichever species you have found, scattered light inside the cup can look like there is a tiny furnace deep within.

Sarcoscypha austriaca (Scarlet Elf-cup) and Sarcoscypha coccinea (Ruby Elf-cup) can only be separated with any certainty by microscopic examination of spores and hairs.

As a man who does not possess a microscope, I suspect that I will continue to lump both species under one heading. 

Scarlet Elf-cup.