Toads in the hole

You may remember that a month or so ago a pair of toads engaged in er... amorous activities were discovered in one of the pits during ashing out.

Ash coated toads

Just in case you'd been wondering what had become of them, I am pleased to be able to report that they enjoyed their time with is us so much that they have paid us a return visit.  On Sunday, Chris Chewter was on a trainee firing turn on 2807 and during the ashing out process, they were discovered once more back in the pit.  This time though they were being rather more gregarious and had brought along some friends. Fearing once more for their well being, Steve Oddy & Ed Brooks helped them out of the pit.  The following photos have been kindly provided by Chris:

Ed & Steve in 'animal rescue' mode.  Note one toad escaping in the bottom right corner

Ed & Steve employ the time honoured shovel & bucket technique

Ed with a bucket of toads

I shouldn't be in the least bit surprised to find that the BBC send their Springwatch team over to record their next series at Toddington, there seems to be plenty of wildlife around at the moment.  We've also got plenty of springs for them to watch on the locos, but I suspect that they wouldn't be quite so interested in those.