Himalayan balsam and toads

One of the many invasive species we have on the heath is himalayan balsam. It has spread, most likely, from a back garden. There are patches all over the heath. Every year it has to be takled, most importantly before it flowers. Luckily, it is easy to pull by the root from the ground. They can get quite tall too. I have been doing quite a bit of the pulling. I also helped with a couple heath hand sessions on a quite big patch.

The other cool thing is that I just recently saw a number of very small toads. We had a thunderstorm and it seemed to bring them out. They were hopping all over the paths. I also had a few people come up to me to tell me they had seem them. I have never seen one so small. I wanted to take a picture, but my mobile phone camera doesn't have zoom, so it would have been too small in the picture to make out. I love being able to see all this wildlife everyday. That is what keeps one feeling fresh about the job.