It's dusk and a group of volunteers are pulling on their boots, gloves and Hi-Viz jackets, picking up their buckets and fishing nets and heading for the country lanes.

The weather is mild, between 6oC and 11 oC and the roads are wet as it's just rained but that doesn't matter for these are the perfect conditions for the annual toad mating season and the volunteers are ready.

A roadside sign in Smallwood near Sandbach and Lawton Heath near Alsager warns motorists that this is "toad" country, urging them to slow down and be mindful of the creatures wanting to pass the road.

But it doesn't matter – for should the motorists not spot the cute toad road signs and other makeshift signs dotted around the band of more than 40 toad patrollers will be there to guide the little chaps to safety.

Smallwood Toad Patrols was set up four years ago after co-ordinator and Alsager Town councillor Jane Smith was out walking her dogs one day and spotted dead toads in the road.

"At first I didn't know what they were but when I asked around I realised they were toads and discovered they were making their way to the ponds where they born to mate."

Jane contacted Froglife and then set about starting a toad patrol to help them safely across any roads when they are on their journey to final their natal pond.

Now four years' later, there are more than 40 volunteers, ranging from eight years of age to 73 from as far away as Macclesfield and Stoke-on-Trent but also Sandbach and Alsager.

"We take it in turns to patrol. We can have very busy nights when we have hundreds then others when we have hardly any. You can't judge but the temperature has to be right although they don't mind storm weather as it puts off flying predators."

Toads are round four years' old when they are mature enough to mate and they always go back to the pond or water where they were born, sometimes a journey of around four km.

"It's so clever. No one knows why they do this but they do," says Cllr Smith who will soon be launching a recruitment drive for ever more volunteers.

The Smallwood patrol volunteers work in Cherry Lane, Alsager and Lawton Heath and Brookhouse Lane, Moss End Lane, Pitcher Lane, Mill Lane and Back Lane in Smallwood.

Last year, their "record" night of helping toads across the road to safety was late March. In total, they helped 820 toads across the roads last year during their patrols which begin at the end of February until mid-April.

"As well as patrolling we also put temporary mesh covers on local grids and we have school speakers happy to spread the love for toads," says Jane.

"We managed to get road works rescheduled at Mill Lane, saving hundreds if not thousands of toads' lives," said Jane.

For more information about the group and how to volunteer, click here.