Watch Your Step

Little peeper frogs have always colonized the potted plants on the deck, singing their night songs, enjoying their mini-pools in the saucers under the pots.  Big warty toads have been much more scarce until this year.  This year they're everywhere.  In the daytime, they rustle under the leaves.  In the evening, I really have to look down as I do chores because they're out in the driveway, in the paths to the coops, and in the barn.  Frogs fling themselves as if shot by cannons; toads walk rather than hop, and it takes them longer to get out of the way.  The last thing I want to do is step on one.  Since toads prefer a dry climate, I wonder if the increased numbers are an omen for a long hot summer.