Mallee Frog Blog

The frogs have been quiet for about three weeks now. They made a bit of noise in early April but have not been heard for at least two weeks! Going quiet seemed to coincide with some cooler nights that we had back then. We are still getting warm days though and today one of the kids saw a black snake out near the pond. Interesting to contemplate how many frogs that snake might have had!

The frog pond has made a big difference to the birds. We used to have many house sparrows (Passer domesticus), but their numbers are now way down (although that coincides with doing some work on the house which may have made their lives difficult too). These days there is a flock of grass parrots in residence - we think they are Mallee Ringnecks (Barnardius barnardi). It used to be a special occasion seeing these but now we see them everyday! Galahs (Cacatua roseicapilla), magpies (Gymnorhina tibicen) and white winged choughs (Corcorax melanorhamphos; before we knew better we used to call these crows) are regulars.

When I was a kid, I remember the white winged choughs used to be found in the treelines along roads. Back then, they wouldn't have been far from a dam. Now we only ever come across them in the scrub near the house. Crested pigeons (Ocyphaps lophotes) have been nesting in trees not too far from the pond. They are very cute, also not very bright. They build their nests at head height or lower! We see quite a group of them on the powerline. They have a characteristic over-balance when they land, and rock back to upright by swinging their tales. At the moment they are very well fed and have a very high body-to-head ratio!

There is also a group of noisy miners (Manorina melanocephala) in the scrub near the pond.

This is a feisty crested pigeon (and chick) that nested outside my office in November last year. There is a similar nest at waist height in the scrub near the pond:

Before the rain the pond was looking quite bare around the edges of the mulch. There has been a lot of bird traffic over summer, particularly galahs and white winged chuffs. Interesting too that not much grew around the pond - there was certainly plenty to kill in the paddocks. Several things may be going on - not many seeds, because the soil was scraped back in many places, competition with trees for moisture, and fairly heavy soil texture (high evaporation). Where seedlings did come up under the mulch, they didn't do that well (in contrast with what happens in paddocks).

The surface of the pond: weed is growing back after the ducks, and the water has cleared up. 

A couple of shots of the bare areas around the pond. Both the pond and the scrub side of the mulch we put down have been bared off. 

Seeing all the froglets tonight I thought I might see something out at the pond. Went out and looked for a good ten minutes and saw nothing.

I can't believe that tadpoles would be that inconspicuous (given the way the ones on the back verandah, and in the dam, have behaved). I wonder perhaps if it's hard to have many tadpoles in a pond that is the only water source for lots of birds? Perhaps if frogs are really going to survive in rural ponds, there needs to be a number of ponds in a small area for it to work (so they're not overwhelmed by the birds)? Maybe they'd do better in a pond that wasn't surrounded by trees?