Baby! How small the toad

I took this photo June 18 while on a short hike around a local lake. A young girl had noticed several tiny "frogs" hopping on the damp shaded ground. In a short time she caught one and showed it to me.

She had captured a baby toad. It could easily sit within the circumference of a dime. This tiny toad was a very tiny egg in early April. Hatching two to 14 days after being laid, it spent the next three weeks or so swimming in shallow water as a little black tadpole. By June 18 it became a baby toad!

Although it is very difficult to visually identify this baby toad, I believe it is most likely an Eastern American Toad. It will gorge itself on tiny insects and grow into an adult by autumn. An Eastern American Toad can be expected to live no longer than two or three years. Snakes are a toad's biggest threat.