Every year hundreds of toads risk a slow and painful death as they attempt to cross busy roads on their way to the pond to breed.

Reporter Elli Hodgson swapped a night in the pub for an evening helping a dedicated team of volunteers, who have saved 550 toads this season.

I'd usually spend my Friday nights heading to the pub and getting a takeaway on my way home.

But after seeing a shoutout on Facebook from some guys on ‘toad watch’, I thought it was time I switched it up.

Donning a high viz jacket, a head torch, and plenty of layers, I headed out with volunteers from Paddock Wood toad patrol and began scouring 60 drain pots posing as traps for wildlife.

My guide was Steve Songhurst, who has patrolled Paddock Wood for 15 years after taking a toad course, who say these animals will die a slow and unpleasant death, unless they intervene.

“It’s a case of looking down the drainpipe to see if there is any movement,” he says.

“The toads come off the road, plop down, cross the road, hit the curb, and can’t get up because it’s like the White Cliffs of Dover to them. So, they follow the edge of the curb, and they fall down these holes,” he adds.

This is where the patrollers of Paddock Wood come in. Steve and two other volunteers patrol the roads on the estate, saving toads on Ashcroft Road, Kiln Way, Chaffinch Way and The Bines area.

With a net and bucket in hand, each drain hole is scoured for life, and it doesn’t take long to come across a pair of toads - a female with a male attached to her back.

I learn that if a male finds a female toad before reaching the pond, the female goes the whole journey with the male on her back. Even more impressive - if another male comes along, she may even taxi two men on her back – which seems like a lot of work to me.

During toad season, which usually runs from mid-February to March, the creatures march towards Putlands pond in Paddock Wood to breed.

But Steve - who stood down as chairman for the Kent Reptile and Amphibian group last Thursday, after serving on the committee for 15 years and acting as chairman for eight - tells me that mild conditions have brought toad season forward this year.

“Toad season used to be the latter part of February, but because of a warming climate we started on February 3 this year. And that’s across Kent, people were starting the tail end of January, so this is climate change in action, this is what climate change is.”

The creatures, who move from nearby gardens and greenspace towards the pond, must cross several roads on a housing estate, avoiding cars, pedestrians and, most importantly - 60 drain holes.

During the patrol Steve - torch in mouth - scoops the pair of toads out of the mucky drainpipe and plops them into the bucket. I am elated to see the toad-saving process in action.

Having never seen one up close, I am mesmerised by their beautiful, dry warty skin and gentle crawl.

In 2023, Paddock Wood toad patrol moved 627 toads. This year, as of Friday, February 16, the volunteers have already saved 457 toads, five frogs, and seven newts, with 34 fatalities.

I ask Steve why he gives up part of his evenings to do this every day from February to March.

“I can’t save tigers and lions and whales, but I can save toads,” he replies.

Back in 2012, after discovering the number of toads had dropped by 70% in 30 years, Steve decided to go to every pond in Paddock Wood to work out where the toads were and make a plan to help them.

From here, he put out a notice to start a toad patrol and built up a collection of people to help out. There are now three who come back every season.

The nature warden, who lives on the west side of Paddock Wood explained: “We can’t save the whole planet, but we can save our little bit. And this is our little bit of trying to make a difference.”

“If we don’t go round to collect them, they’re going to die down these gully pots, they can’t get out, it’s a prison to them.”

As we walk to the pond, buckets in hand, with the distinctive noise of the male frogs in the background, I ask Steve whether there is an easier solution to the problem - one that doesn’t involve a nightly patrol.

He tells me it is a “really easy” problem to solve.

A wildlife kerb is designed to allow amphibians to bypass the gully grating and avoid needless deaths. This simple design change allows amphibians to follow the curve and avoid the drain holes altogether.

While these kerbs aren’t expensive to put into new developments, Steve says they are costly to retrofit, which prompted him to write to planners of the new developments in Paddock Wood, and advise them to build them in from the beginning.

“The toads would just follow round the edge and wouldn’t drop down. It’s such a simple fix,” he adds.

As we reach the pond, the toad patrollers have a count up: six male toads, four female toads, one newt, and two fatalities.

Although I am assured this is a quieter evening due to dryer conditions, I am more than pleased to have helped the toads out of the hole, so to speak.

The amphibians, which tend to eat slugs, worms and insects, can live up to the age of six or seven if they get past the initial death rate.

With a newfound interest in saving the toads, I ask Steve what more people can do to help.

“Make your garden more wildlife friendly and don’t use chemicals in your garden because toads, frogs and newts have porous skin and these chemicals are dangerous for them,” he says.

After a successful night with the Paddock Wood toad patrollers, and ten toads added to the pond to breed – we call it a night.

But for the volunteers, this evening will be on repeat until toad season peaks when they breed at the end of month.

Males outnumber females nine to one, so on occasion the females end up with twenty males on her.

Steve tells me the amphibians will stay in the pond until breeding is finished, and thereafter they will make their way back to the gardens they came from.

That’s until next year, when the cycle happens again.

With this newfound wisdom, I will be looking for amphibian friends every time I pass a drain.

And while looking for wildlife in drain pipes isn’t my usual Friday night – it was certainly a ribbit-ing experience.

If you want to help a toad cross the road email – toadpatrolcoordinator@gmail.com