A Happy, Relaxing, Summertime Toad

I had quite a fun surprise at a local park last night. There's a little pool area where the koi fish swim. It's fun to watch the fish glide around. Well, this time I saw something plop in and kind of scoot along the water. At first I thought it was a chipmunk or small rabbit, of all things. I know how much sense that makes, but I'm just so used to seeing chipmunks and baby rabbits lately. What was actually there was this adorable toad.

Look at this toad, just lounging on what looks like his personal pool noodle. To give you an idea of scale:

I was of course curious to know what kind of toad this was specifically, so I looked up some toad identification charts. Turns out there are a lot more toads out there than I realized. After studying some toad photos and visiting Wikipedia, I found this is simply "The American Toad". Pretty exotic name, hey? Haha! Somehow I was expecting more!

Three types of toads fit into this category: The eastern American toad, the dwarf American toad, and the Hudson Bay toad. Since I don't live in the Hudson Bay area, and this toad was in the 3" range, I'm going to say my toad was of the eastern American variety.

You guys might be interested in reading more about this toad on its Wiki page:

American Toad Wikipedia

It's the standard toad stuff. This toad likes fresh water, living near wooded areas, eating a variety of bugs, and hibernates. But two interesting bits of info are:

1) It makes a sound much like a ringing telephone when looking for a mate.

2) Some of these toads have been known to live 30+ years! Wonder how old this one was?

It's funny, but it seems the best way to get some attention from the fish is to focus your attention on a toad! The fish kept swimming over to me while I was following the toad around the pool. At one point, the toad and one of the fish nearly collided. So long as they were there, I couldn't pass up having a fish photo shoot!

I think this one has the most personality:

I call this one "The Ghost Fish"

So here's where the toad and fish were swimming around. Isn't that pretty? The lighting features are new this year.

Have you guys been seeing any toads this summer? I often think I'm hearing them chirping away at night, but this is the first one I've seen this year.

They come from beneath the sea!

Those of you who follow me on Twitter know that every day I post something called The Daily Pin Board. Basically, it's a Pinterest board that I find interesting or fitting to share that day. Many of these are Halloween or spooky themed, and some are just goofy. You can catch up on all the pin boards I've posted by going here:

Justine's #DailyPinBoard

Get ready, because there's a lot to look at! Today's pin board was a collection of strange sea creatures. Paging through the board, I was fascinated by what I saw. There are so many creatures we'll never see and are not even aware of. Many of these creatures are in Asia. That's one of the fun parts of the internet - being able to see things you'd have to travel pretty far (and in this case, pretty deep) to see in real life. Here are the sea creatures:

Strange Sea Creatures Pin Board

The creatures ranged from adorable to horrifying. Seriously, movie monsters could be based off some of these. I've seen some B-Movies that could have used a little help, as far as sea monster design. This comes to mind:



So, here are my picks as far as The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, under the sea. This is just my opinion. You might find some of the ugly ones really cute for all I know!

The Good:

Nembrotha Cristata - It looks like a little undersea Pretty Pony to me!

A Flying Fish, Raja Ampat, Indonesia - Looks kind of like an undersea hummingbird.

I love this little guy. Thanks to Arsenic and Old Lace, I now know he is an Axolotl, also known as the Mexican Salamander.

Glaucus Atlanticus - This one is making it in the "good" category for being so cute and Pikachu-like. I've read that it can give you quite a poison sting, so maybe it's not all that good.

The Bad:

The Goliath Tigerfish from the Congo River in Africa - Locals say it's the only fish that doesn't fear crocodiles. It's been known to eat some smaller ones and even attack people!

A Moray Eel in Indonesia

I don't know what this is, but I'm afraid.

Lamprea - I don't really know how "bad" this is, it just looks menacing. I'm sure it's menacing to some creatures! I watched a video of another worm-like critter that is definitely menacing to its tank mate. I'll warn you, this is creepy. Giant Bristle Worm:




I guess anything with a mouth full of teeth looks mean to me!

The Ugly:

This is the Blob Fish. Doesn't this look like Ziggy?

I'm not sure what this is, but it looks like a character off SpongeBob. If anyone out there is familiar with some of the unnamed ones, please let me know what they are! 

It was hard for me to decide if this is "bad" or "ugly" but yikes. It's a Northern Skygazer, which is a pretty name for something that looks like it would bite your ankles as you walked by.

I'd say these pictures would make a good warning for what to watch out for at the beach, but chances are you won't be seeing any of these!

There's one more creature I want to share, that doesn't really fit any of the above categories. It's an Oarfish.

Have you ever seen anything like this? I watched a video of one of these slithering around the water at a beach. At least, I assume I was watching an Oarfish. Maybe it was Nessie's Tropical Cousin!




This video makes me think of every beach party monster movie I've seen. Except, these people don't seem all that unnerved by these things! Wouldn't you want to move away if something this large swam up to you?