Bufo Bufo (Common Toad)

Bufo bufo
 
The common toad was in the news last week in Belgium. These amphibians woke up from their hibernation and started their annual migration to the pools for spawning. Many of them died when they crossed the street and got hit by cars, but luckily there were enough of them who reached the pools, so they could immediately start spawning. When I went to the park for shooting birds with the 80-400 VR lens, I almost passed the pond without noticing the toads, but some kids saw them moving so I got interested too. Of course this was a very nice photographical event, and I was glad that I took the Tamron 180mm with me. There were a huge amount of them crawling over each other between the withered reed. Some of the just looked around, some other ones chased other ones, and some were even spawning. I took very much photo's, but a high amount of them were unusable because I don't have a good tripod yet. This definitely needs to be one of my next purchases!
 
Photo by Frank Panis

Shooting Data:

Camera: Nikon D70
Lens: Tamron SP AF 180mm f/3.5 Di Macro 1:1
Sensitivity: ISO200
Shutter speed: 1/125s @ f/9
Flash: none
Image: RAW, converted in Nikon Capture editor, sharpening none, USM 100-3-7 cropped and saved.