Mallee Frog Blog

We've had a run of cold nights and I haven't really heard the frogs calling for a week. Tonight there are at least two spotted marsh frogs calling from the dam - it's about 9 degrees at 10pm so a relatively warm night for winter, and it's also dark (no moon). There has been no sound from the spadefoots, and strangely no sounds yet from the pond either. 

Yesterday I took a walk out to the pond and dam. Plenty of insect activity in both, and I saw my first red mite on the pond. The other bugs are still there in large numbers.  In the dam the water is deep - enough to drown all the seedling ryegrass that was in there from earlier rain. The flowering milk thistle is also stressed by the waterlogging. We will have water in the dam for a while yet.

Yesterday we had another 8mm of rain! Today was a clear, sunny day. Tonight, I stepped outside to hear the familiar 'click' call of the Spotted Marsh Frog. One of them has started up at the dam, and is keeping a Mallee Spadefoot Toad company.

A few nights ago when I made the Spadefoot recording, it was overcast and quite dark. Last night, quite clear and well moonlit. There wasn't much calling going on. Tonight is the same - and I guess the frogs are just being cautious. Tonight I notice the Spadefoot seemed to be aware of my presence (it stopped calling when I moved around), whereas the Spotted Marsh Frog just kept going. Presumably the other Spadefoots (which I heard the other night) are trying not to get eaten.

It would be interesting to know if the Spadefoot trigger for coming out of estivation (frog hibernation) requires a bit more rain than the Spotted Marsh Frogs - as the Spadefoots were a few days ahead and there seemed to be more of them.

The dam has quite a bit of water in it - more like a lake than just a big puddle!

We took a walk at dusk a couple of nights ago and checked one of the other dams, only a few hundred meters away, but no water in the bottom. It wasn't even slippery to walk across. The wetting up from the greywater (and the greater catchment area provided by the roads running into it) make a big difference to the amount of water in the frog dam.

Today down at the dam there are some signs of life - various little creatures zooming around, and the odd mosquito wriggler (centre of this photo). I hope the frogs get stuck into them!

I also saw some bubbles forming on the bottom of the dam, which may be the precursors of the strange holes seen last year.

The bugs I've been interested in are still at the pond, and very active today.

In contrast, the inside bugs were looking pretty tired and many of them died, so we threw the rest out. Before doing so though, we noticed that the surface bugs had shed their skin - not entirely dead.

The other great thing about the rain has been the difference it makes to how everything looks. Everything looks so fresh. The moss has come to life and is a brilliant green.

Noreen also found this interesting slime on the way to the dam. It must be something we don't notice when dry, but very slippery and strange looking when wet. We hope to get an ID on it some time soon. 

More rain too! At least 12mm steadily from Sunday night on. This is going to be a great winter at least for the frogs.

The kids spotted the bugs I've been interested in in some puddles down at the bus stop. The bugs on the left were still in some water - so we took them home for a closer look. The bugs on the right were in a puddle that had dried up, and it looked a bit late to try to take them home:

This is the best close-up photo that I've been able to get. They look like small versions of slaters (woodlice). I'd love to know what they are:

(the white lumps are saltbush leaves; we thought they might eat them).

They were very active when we brought them in - moving all over the place - but have lost energy in the last few days and seem to be dying. Perhaps they only accidentally get caught in puddles?