DURING recent nights anyone who regularly drives along Boundary Road, Rowledge, in the early evening will have witnessed people in high-vis jackets and carrying torches patrolling close to the entrance to Alice Holt Forest.

These are teams organised by the Bourne Conservation Group (BCG) on a mission to save the frogs and toads that are crossing the road on their way back to their breeding ponds. Readers may remember the folk song ‘A frog he would a-wooing go’!

Frogs and toads spend most of the year on land, where they provide gardeners and farmers with an excellent no-cost pest eradication service. In early spring they return to the ponds to breed; this year the warm and wet weather has triggered their return at least two weeks earlier than usual.

In the first few days BCG’s ‘toad patrols’ saw 14 frogs, 14 toads and three newts safely across the road, but sadly three toads and two frogs were killed by passing cars.

By the end of the migrations the group expects to ‘rescue’ well over a hundred amphibians. It records the numbers and submits them to the Surrey Amphibian and Reptile Group (SARG) who monitor the populations in Surrey.

So if you are driving along Boundary Road or any other road near breeding ponds just after dark please look out for, and avoid running over both amphibians and their human rescuers.

Anyone who wants to join in a patrol is welcome to contact BCG by sending an email to [email protected].