'The ground was moving... it was hundreds of tiny toads'

CUTE CREATURES AS SMALL AS A FINGERNAIL EMERGING FROM 'GEM LAKE'

- By ANDREW FORGRAVE Countryside and Tourism Editor [e-mail]

EVEN with warty skin and coal-lump eyes, it’s still possible to glam up for a day out to the sea-side.

Remarkable photos have been captured of tiny toadlets playing by a beach on Anglesey.

As each one was so small - no bigger than a fingernail - they were hard to find even when looking for them at Traeth Llydan (Broad Beach), Rhosneigr.

Viewed close up, they gleamed coppery-yellow in the sunshine, their bodies covered in individual grains of sand that sparkled like miniature gems.

When pictures were shared online, they earned a round of applause.

For some people, the bejewelled amphibians appeared vaguely prehistoric, like glow-up dinosaurs going for a jolly on the beach.

The photos are astonishing, but getting them wasn't easy.

Rhosneigr resident Stuart Benson ventured down to the beach after being tipped off about the toadlets by a friend on Facebook.

He headed to a stream flowing from Llyn Maelog that flows across Traeth Llydan.

“The toadlets were so small that at first I couldn't see anything” he said.