Spring must definitely be in the air.  A couple of posts back I shared some photos of mating, Canada Goose style.  Today is more a lesson drawn from the ‘Handbook of Natural Selection’ about not getting too engrossed.  

If you see toads or frogs this time of year there is a good chance it will be in a shallow pond with multiple males clambering over each other to get to and cling onto the females.  They are pretty determined and not much will stand in their way.  Even a predator doesn’t seem to make them cautious; as the carrion crow here shows.  I saw this crow hop into the shallows of a marsh and deftly pick out a mating couple of toads before coming back to the shore and butchering one at the water’s edge,  Fortunately, on the first occasion, two toads in one claw was too much to deal with and the female was dropped and, I think, probably escaped.  The male suffered a less pleasant fate and the crow proceeded to tear it apart.  It seemed to mainly be interested in the legs and ate those before bundling the skin and intestines as deftly tossing them aside,  it repeated this a second time with another toad, again plucked from the water (though I don’t think that was the previously mentioned female).  I understand that toads may have an unpleasant skin and organs so this may explain why the crow only ate these parts.