You never know what you might find in your compost heap. And when you find something you might wrongly identify it, as I did. Some of us town-dwellers might have problems distinguishing between our frogs and our toads. I have to confess that I confused my amphibians.

I can tell them apart now I've met them both.

Frogs have more moist, smooth skin, and with their long back legs they jump more than toads.

Toads have a drier, duller skin, of an earthy, pimply appearance. They tend to crawl around rather than jump. They are browny-grey, and apparently their skin colour varies according to where they live. Mine then was compost-heap coloured.

More about the toad
Frogs in the garden

Photo, above: A Common toad (Bufo Bufo). ©Peter Parks/ imagequest3d.com. By kind permission of www.imagequest3d.com

Wildlife

Above: A frog (Rana temporaria) in the garden pond.