Be Kind to Toads

Here you see a rather pitiful sight.

A skinny little toad we rescued from a concrete bunker into which it had presumably fallen and become trapped. It was terribly thin but still quite active, so we released it onto some nice wet and wormy ground where it might feed up in peace. I tried to encourage it with a woodlouse but it seemed a bit reluctant to have a go. It was the best I could find at the time. The really sad thing is that it isn't just this unfortunate individual toad that's having such a hard time - it's all of them. Back in the summer there were revisions made to something called the UK Biodiversity Action Plan (UKBAP) and in particular to its list of species of conservation concern - in other words the plants and animals in decline across the country. There are a few shocks in it. The once familiar Toad as we've said, but also Hedgehogs, Starlings, House Sparrows and Eels. Creatures we think of still as familiar and even common-place (whether we've seen them recently ourselves or not) really aren't anymore. There's a great deal we can all do though to help, perhaps at or in our work, certainly at home in our gardens, and more generally in the way we respond to what we see going on in the world around us. We are very lucky here on the Island to share in an environment so well-blessed with wildlife, truly a refuge for so many species in serious decline or even now extinct elsewhere across the south. But that doesn't happen by accident and it's neither a given nor a guarantee for the future. There's an awful lot of hard work going on out there to protect and conserve wildlife - not just because it's green and good but because the natural world is a part of our daily lives and a part our wellbeing. Without it around us even the shiniest of nice new technological marvels is a pretty dull thing. So be kind to toads please.