Each spring, on the first warm rainy nights, thousands of hibernating toads awaken from deep under the Schuylkill Center’s leaf litter. In our corner of Roxborough, they move at night across Port Royal Avenue, hoping to get to the water they smell in the Upper Roxborough Reservoir Preserve. There, they intend to mate. 

If conditions are right, hundreds of small lumpy, bumpy toads bounce onto the road — and get hit by cars.

That’s where you come in. By joining Toad Detour, you can help them cross the road safely. And you also get a front-row seat to Roxborough’s acclaimed running of the toads!

This spring is the 10th year that Toad Detour volunteers will gather at the corner of Port Royal and Hagy’s Mill Road to usher our local amphibians across the road. On nights when things are really hopping, our volunteers, clad in their luminescent vests and wielding flashlights, close Port Royal Avenue to car traffic. They also carry plastic cups to pick up toads and tote them to safety. 

Over the last nine years, we estimate some 12,000 adult toads have been helped across the road. 

When the toads awaken from their winter slumber, their instinct is to mate right away. For that they need standing water, and toads in the Schuylkill Center’s upper forest tend to head straight for the Upper Roxborough reservoir, crossing Port Royal Avenue and Eva Street after sunset. As toads did not evolve with an understanding of cars, when toad meets evening commute, the toad tends to lose. 

Those that make it to the reservoir begin courting, males singing long trilling calls that females find irresistible. 

The story is not over once the female toads have laid their jelly-like strings of eggs in the water — nor is Toad Detour. It takes six to eight weeks for toad tadpoles to develop into “toadlets,” fully formed toads smaller than a dime. A second mass migration occurs with these toadlets crossing back over Port Royal to get to the forest, where they take up residence, living on insects and worms. (Once when returning to the Center for a lunch break, I saw what looked like a swarm of grasshoppers crossing Port Royal. It was thousands of toadlets heading “home,” not even waiting for cover of darkness.) Toad Detour has helped countless toadlets cross as well. 

To help with Toad Detour, contact Volunteer Coordinator Claire Morgan at 215-482-7300, ext. 120, or claire@schuylkillcenter.org. 

The Schuylkill Center thanks the many volunteers who have helped over the years and also our neighbors, who patiently wait through the road closings.

The bulls run in Pamplona — here in Roxborough, we have the running of the toads.