So I haven’t seen the mole in a while and I was walking around looking at some of the trees and my irrigation system and noticed a little hole in the ground. The hole was just about the right size for a mole and I was curious as to where it led and where it had come from so I stuck my finger in the hole.
Now, I actually know not to do this because I’m pretty sure I got stung by a centipede one day putting my fingers in places where I couldn’t see. But I was sure that this was a mole vent so I put my finger in and lifted up the ground and cleared out the beginning of the hole to see where it went. I put my finger in further and it moved! Waaaaaaaaaaahaaaaaaa.
Which is the title of this post. After I had taken a moment to take a couple of DEEP breaths and give the heart rate time to go back down to the lower hundreds, I lifted out what had moved and have the attached photos. I really like the eyes. You remember the little toadpoles I had in my pond last year? Well this is one a year later.
Western spadefoot toad. They are actually endangered and I wouldn’t have bothered it except I didn’t know it was there.
And I had hundreds in the pond last year. And have several pictures of garter snakes eating them. It’s all an ecosystem. Look at the second picture with the spade on its back foot. I didn’t really get a good angle on it, but that is a hard, sharp edged, shovel sticking out of its foot. But I really like its eyes! biology is beautiful!
