Beware: Toads Crossing
You may not know about it, but Buriton is the site of an annual migration in late winter or early spring when common toads travel back to their breeding areas: usually on the first warm, damp evenings of the year (February to April).
Toads spend the majority their year on land, in woodland, hedgerows and gardens. They are nocturnal creatures, and hibernate each winter in frost-free undergrowth or holes. Every Spring they must return to the water to breed.
Common toads are very particular about where they breed and follow the same route each year. If something obstructs their path, they carry on regardless. Unfortunately, if this something is a road then the toads are at risk of being killed by traffic.
Toads tend to start moving around dusk and will continue into the night, depending on how cold it is. Visitors to the village in mid-March noticed that there were several toads crossing by the pond at about 8pm, with a number of cars driving past and inadvertently killing them.
It’s the adult toads that are migrating to breed at this time of year and so each one that is killed affects future numbers.
Many amphibians are in big trouble at the moment and need all the help they can get. Monitoring over the last 30 years across the UK has shown a large average decline in common toads of 68% - with the decline being greatest in our part of England.
To save these intrepid travellers some temporary road warning signs have been erected to try to make drivers more aware and this initiative may well be repeated in future years.
