From Wikipedia:

The common toad, also known as European toad or simply the toad in Anglophone parts of Europe (Bufo bufo, from Latin bufo “toad”), is a toad found throughout most of Europe (excluding Ireland, Iceland, parts of Scandinavia, and some Mediterranean islands), western North Asia and a small part of Northwest Africa. It belongs to a group of closely related species descended from a common ancestral line of toads and forming a species complex. The toad is an inconspicuous animal, usually lying hidden during the day. It becomes active at dusk, hunting the invertebrates on which it feeds at night. It moves with a slow, ungainly walk or by jumping short distances, and has greyish-brown skin covered with wart-like lumps.

Although toads are usually solitary animals, large numbers of them converge on certain breeding ponds during the breeding season, where the males compete to mate with the females. The females lay their eggs in gelatinous strings in the water, which later hatch into tadpoles. After several months of growth and development, the tadpoles sprout limbs and undergo metamorphosis to become tiny toads. The juveniles then leave the water and remain largely terrestrial for the rest of their lives.

The common toad appears to be in decline in some areas, but is currently classified as being of “least concern” on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. It is under threat due to habitat loss, particularly the drainage of its breeding grounds, and some toads are killed on roads during their annual migrations. The toad has long been associated with witchcraft in popular culture and literature.

Image details
Date: 20 March 2021
Camera body: Nikon D50
Lens: Tamron 70.0-300.0 mm f/4.0-5.6
Focal Length: 210mm
Aperture: ƒ/5
Shutter Speed: 1/640s
ISO: 400
Licence: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

From Wikipedia:

The common toad, also known as European toad or simply the toad in Anglophone parts of Europe (Bufo bufo, from Latin bufo “toad”), is a toad found throughout most of Europe (excluding Ireland, Iceland, parts of Scandinavia, and some Mediterranean islands), western North Asia and a small part of Northwest Africa. It belongs to a group of closely related species descended from a common ancestral line of toads and forming a species complex. The toad is an inconspicuous animal, usually lying hidden during the day. It becomes active at dusk, hunting the invertebrates on which it feeds at night. It moves with a slow, ungainly walk or by jumping short distances, and has greyish-brown skin covered with wart-like lumps.

Although toads are usually solitary animals, large numbers of them converge on certain breeding ponds during the breeding season, where the males compete to mate with the females. The females lay their eggs in gelatinous strings in the water, which later hatch into tadpoles. After several months of growth and development, the tadpoles sprout limbs and undergo metamorphosis to become tiny toads. The juveniles then leave the water and remain largely terrestrial for the rest of their lives.

The common toad appears to be in decline in some areas, but is currently classified as being of “least concern” on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. It is under threat due to habitat loss, particularly the drainage of its breeding grounds, and some toads are killed on roads during their annual migrations. The toad has long been associated with witchcraft in popular culture and literature.

Image details
Date: 20 March 2021
Camera body: Nikon D50
Lens: Tamron 70.0-300.0 mm f/4.0-5.6
Focal Length: 300mm
Aperture: ƒ/5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/1,000s
ISO: 360
Licence: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

From Wikipedia:

The common frog or grass frog (Rana temporaria), also known as the European common frog, European common brown frog, European grass frog, European Holarctic true frog, European pond frog or European brown frog, is a semi-aquatic amphibian of the family Ranidae, found throughout much of Europe as far north as Scandinavia and as far east as the Urals, except for most of the Iberian Peninsula, southern Italy, and the southern Balkans. The farthest west it can be found is Ireland. It is also found in Asia, and eastward to Japan. The nominative, and most common, subspecies Rana temporaria temporaria is a largely terrestrial frog native to Europe. It is distributed throughout northern Europe and can be found in Ireland, the Isle of Lewis and as far east as Japan.

Common frogs metamorphose through three distinct developmental life stages — aquatic larva, terrestrial juvenile, and adult. They have corpulent bodies with a rounded snout, webbed feet and long hind legs adapted for swimming in water and hopping on land. Common frogs are often confused with the common toad (Bufo bufo), but frogs are easily distinguished by their longer legs, hopping movements, and moist skin, whereas toads crawl and have a dry ‘warty’ skin. The spawn of the two species is also different, with frogs laying their eggs in clumps and toads in long strings. The common frog is very similar to its close relative the moor frog (Rana arvalis). Where both species occur together the most reliable way to tell them apart is by looking at their metatarsal tubercles, a small spur on the hind feet next to the innermost toe: in common frog it is soft and small, less than a third of the length of the innermost toe, while in moor frog it is hard and approximately half the length of the innermost toe. Common frog and moor frog also have different calls, and for a short period during the breeding season moor frog males may become blue in color, while common frog males at most get a faint blueish tint.

There are 3 subspecies of the common frog, R. t. temporaria, R. t. honnorati and R. t. palvipalmata. R. t. temporaria is the most common subspecies of this frog.

Image details
Date: 21 November 2019
Camera body: Nikon D50
Lens: Tamron 70.0-300.0 mm f/4.0-5.6
Focal Length: 300mm
Aperture: ƒ/5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/500s
ISO: 560
Licence: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International