Why did the toad cross the road? No, it’s not a joke – it was to get to its birthplace to breed! But it’s a journey fraught with danger, which is why you sometimes see “toads in road” signs, or perhaps a night-time toad patrol where volunteers carry toads across the road in buckets.

From mid-February onwards, depending on the weather, toads leave the places where they have spent the past nine months and head for the ponds or lakes where they started their lives.

This mass toad migration happens every year all over the UK.

Charlotte Harris, Surrey Wildlife Trust Youth Action Committee member, explained: “We tend to associate the common toad with water, but it actually spends most of the year living on land, foraging for food in woods and gardens. Then in the breeding season it migrates back to the pond or lake it was spawned in.”

Although generations of toads may have used the same migratory courses for decades, in many places we have constructed roads across those routes. “It’s estimated that 20 tonnes of toads are killed on roads by vehicles each year,” said Charlotte.

Toads that manage to cross the road are faced with more dangers. Charlotte explained that on meeting a high kerb they walk along the road, looking for a gap to continue their journey.

“They can fall down a road drain, landing in water. Whilst toads are good swimmers, if left to swim around in the drains they will eventually get exhausted and drown.

“The perils of this journey often result in local toad populations declining, as only a fraction of the toads manage to first reach their destination, then breed, and finally make it back across the roads.

“This is where toad patrols come in. These are organised groups of volunteers who go out on mild, rainy evenings in February, March and April and help the toads to reach their breeding ponds safely.

“This can involve scooping up toads from roads before they get squashed by vehicles or using a net to rescue toads which have fallen down drains, collecting them in a bucket, and releasing them safely clear of the road on the pond side.

“In places where roads are very busy, some patrols even set up barriers to stop the toads from reaching the road, then the patrollers collect the toads from along the barriers and carry them across the road to release them on the other side.”

Charlotte is patrol manager of the Cobham toad patrol where people have been helping the toads reach their breeding lake since 1987.

In addition to toads in abundance, the patrol also rescues a small numbers of frogs and newts.

She added: “We keep patrolling each evening when the conditions are right until around mid-April. By then we have helped hundreds of amphibians across the road to the lake and then back across to the woods after breeding.

“By the summer, toad tadpoles have turned into toadlets which also leave the lake, meaning that we need to do a few extra patrols to scoop dozens of tiny toadlets out of the drains.”

If you would like to volunteer with a toad patrol, the charity Froglife has a Toads on Roads portal (froglife.org/toads-on-roads-portal) where you can search for a local patrol and send a message offering your help.

As I write, the patrols shown that are closest to Woking are in Pirbright, Boldermere (Old Lane) and Stoughton.

Before we’re done with toads, what do you call a woman with a toad on her head? Lily, of course!