it is to be at Lake Lagunita (Stanford, CA) and find toads and frogs in June. We hadn't been back since April, when there were barely tadpoles to find. And now, in early June the lake is dry. But, miraculously, the young amphibians seem to have timed it perfectly. They're now adult (but still small) toads and frogs, ready to risk both a snake's hunger and a child's affection in hopping from the center of the lake to the periphery, where they will live out the rest of the summer hoping, as we all will, for a much damper fall than has been the fashion of late.
The same time last year, this was still a pond.
A grassland now, it is still home to a good few thousand young California toads (Bufo boreas halophilus).
And Pacific Tree (or Chorus) Frogs (Pseudacris regilla) -- which are harder to catch but more interesting, in that they vary hugely in their markings. This is the greenest end of the spectrum. But they go to a grey that is all but the same as the toads, and also a bronze that is unreal in its chemical intensity.
We also saw a Western Yellow-bellied Racer (snake), but it slipped away before I could snap a picture.