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It rained heavily today 30th December 2004 & the
block now has water everywhere in the blacksoil ponds. The frogs
are madly calling & we need to close the doors to watch TV. (Its
only deafening after the first few rains).
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At 10PM I took to the mud puddles to see
what frogs were about & was totally amazed with the
nightlife.
I didn't see one canetoad near
the water or hear their calling (we had cleaned up several
hundred over the last month, but we still see them passing
through)
The ponds are teeming with frogs/toads ( called ??must get
book out!). They have spawned by the hundreds.
Must of seen 7-8 different frog
& toad species, many camera shy. Green tree frogs numbered
over 30 with a few big fat ones amongst them. (One had 2
potential mates) (must be the females that get so big) Still
had several frogs assuming the verandah position for food &
not interested in the wild parties going on about them
(obviously happily married).
Just squatting amongst the bush
& water in the warm darkness being bombarded with the
overwhelming pitch of frog calls, it was impossible to
differentiate the many different calls out there. Sitting
here now as I write I can pick out 4 different types of
calls.
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Mid January 2005
The ponds have been dry for a
week and all tadpoles have perished (except for the ones
that we collected and spread around our frog breeding ponds)
After last years 2004 debacle where we collected tadpoles
(majority being canetoads), we obtained the fresh spawn in
the morning from frogs we had seen during the night before.
Late January 2005
Some of the ponds have filled
yet again & dried out with only two cane toads being
recorded as calling out (within 50 metres of the house) (I
know they are there just biding their time for later in the
wet season when the frogs are exhausted)
Our tadpoles have back legs and
have thinned out dramatically from the several hundred that
hatched, some perished when heavy rain in the rainfall last
week flowed over the edge of the plastic wading pool (and
along with it escaping tadpoles).
We did see lots of little
hoppers the other day & wondered if they were ours (however
they resembled cane toads, but it is hard to tell when less
than a little fingernail in size)
Feb 05
With the warmer & drier weather
being here for the last few weeks we have seen more activity
in Cane Toads (time to do a roundup soon before the next
rain) (Had a few rains..... but I mean rainfall of an inch
plus in an hour or two, and several of these over a few
days) Something that will top up the dry wallows.
Collected over 40 canetoads the
other night.
The Monsoon is
returning.................No! Bloody Cyclones dragged all
the good rainfalls along with it and not enough in it to
leave lasting puddles about over several weeks.
April 05 and there was no
real action over the last few months, apart from the Cane
Toads who have multiplied again in their quicker tadpole
cycle. (What would of happened if we didn't dispose of the
200+ toads over the last few weeks?) We still have
tadpoles in the kids wading pool & bathtub..... I think they
might be there for good?
Wet Season of 05/06
What a ripper, we had our years rainfall in the months
between November - Jan 06.
By March 06 we had had almost the driest wet season month
with only 62ml & people were saying it is the driest wet
season ever. (That's why records are kept, people forget the
previous deluges)
Then in April 06, Katherine experienced another flood, from
rainfall that fell further up the Katherine River.
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Wet Season |
Oct 2005 |
Nov |
Dec |
Jan 2006 |
Feb |
Mar |
Apr 2006 |
|
Rainfall 05/06 ml |
33 |
194 |
393 |
293 |
62
(9.8ml max) |
455 |
151 (to 7Apr06) |
Decline in treefrogs noticed around house in 2006.
With all the talk on climate change and disappearing frog
populations, I have noticed we do not have the green treefrogs
around the usual haunts of the verandah, so far in October 2006.
Is this where I scream climate change, or Golden Tree snake !
that was lurking with intent over several weeks & entering
the aircon ducting cavities that the frogs loved to hang out in.
Faced with a dilemma of losing several tree frogs to another
native animal all we did was watch and let it go about its
business, and yes we did lose treefrogs.
Frogs from New Years Eve............. most people were out doing
what you do on the years end.
These are not Green Tree Frogs.
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Hundreds of these
frogs in a frenzy |
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