My toad is missing

Last week, after one of our daily thunderstorms, I was outside on the sidewalk at the front of my house and I noticed someone missing. The toad that had been a regular visitor every summer for several years wasn't there. It usually was seen the night after an afternoon rain. But it's not been there this year.

Come to think of it, a lot of things seem different this summer in my small part of the world. We have fewer bats, fewer mosquitos and fewer lightning bugs.

But we have more rabbits. And fewer buzzards. And young deer are everywhere. This should be a great year for deer hunters.

A few weeks ago, there were a lot of dead raccoons on the back roads that I normally drive, but not so many now.

But what I want to know is, where is my toad, and where are the buzzards?