Fox Park #16 and #17: 4/16/17,Big Toad: Small Vireo. Yay.

I was in and out of Fox park today as well as yesterday, so I will not put a time. The sun was hot (77F), the skies were clear, and the birds were singing. Loudly. I did a sit spot yesterday, which kind of rolled into today- there was not a peep yesterday. I do not have the foggiest idea why; regardless, it was soggy and drizzly, and I did not make any great achievements worth writing home about. This image existed once on WordPress, but the web moves on.I did, however, find this extremely large and incredibly dead American Toad. Observe it in all its massiveness. This fellow was around 6 (6!) inches long. Key things to note about a toad:

• the bizarre patterns with no discernible regularity. This one has leopard print pants and a camo shirt. This seems to have to do with where it lives; forest floors where yummy worms and grubs reside are where these toads make their homes.
• The poisons in the bumps behind the eyes are “not weak”. Toads have toxic glands, excreting “bufotoxins” (bufo really just means toad) which are a sort of steroid chemically mangled with strange and hard-to-synthesise-in-the-lab compounds. The toxins in this American (and “eastern”) toad are “weak” because they should only kill your small dog if eaten. 🙂 The even larger South American cousin however (Cane toad) can not only grow to have a 9 inch long body, but simply licking it will kill most humans. As a result, they are not commonly eaten in the wild, so toads are generally not endangered.

Catching up to today:

I will cut right to the chase: An image was here before the migration. It didn’t make the journey.This is a Blue-headed Vireo, and the worst picture I could possibly take. Indeed, I took it by accident while looking through my lens to verify this bird was “too far away to identify”. Only on my way back did I realize what I had captured. I thought at first it was a nashville warbler- so, in my confusion, I stood for over an hour baking in the sun in the field where I took this picture. I did not see it again. BUT: I heard it. A slow and clear, “see-boo?? I-See-you!! Want-tea-too??” (or something to that effect), emanating from the middle of the trees. This, coupled with the eye ring, fuzzy blue-grey head, wing bars, and buff yellow throat and body, I can say with much certainty this really is a blue-headed vireo. Huzzah!

I believe there are real wood warblers here, now. I hear the odd “zeeZEE” and “BeeZoo” and “ze,zee,ZEE”, but no clear songs yet. These are warbler sounds, but not songs. Today was a 23 species day, all at Fox Park. Things should get pretty interesting this week…

-Jess

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