Teams of volunteers have been set up all over the country to patrol roads at this time, scooping toads up by the bucketful and depositing them safely on the other side of the road. At this tme of year it is easiest to see the amphibians as they arrive at their ponds to spawn. For most of the rest of the year these animals are very unobtrusive and difficult to find. Frogs and toads may look very similar but can easily be told apart. Frogs have more slender bodies, smooth moist skin and hop everywhere.
Toads have more bulbous bodies, dry warty-looking skin and tend to crawl.
The rare natterjack toad may be distinguished from the common toad by a yellow stripe down its back, and by the fact that it is totally incapable of hopping. As it has become so rare, and its special habitat threatened, the natterjack is strictly protected by law. Newts can be seen by torchlight in the first two hours after dusk at pond margins, but only in the Spring during breeding and egg laying. For the rest of the year, newts take on a completely terrestrial way of life. In the UK, there are three species of newt.