Mallee Frog Blog

Today we had 28.5mm rain in several thunderstorms, and the frogs in the dam must be in heaven. Accordingly I heard a couple of Mallee Spadefoot Toads calling tonight. I imagine there's a fair bit of water back in the dam now and they will be busy.

A few days ago I went down there and pulled out a cumbungi plant that I'd missed. Interesting that it hadn't really spread as much as the others had - perhaps because it's been a bit cooler? I am very hopeful that the cumbungi might be gone for the moment. There has been no sign of it coming back in either dam or pond.

The other big frog action - in the last post I mentioned plenty of calling from the pond - on Feb 6 there were three egg masses down there. The frogs in the pond have since quietened down. That pond must be thoroughly over-populated now! Tadpoles everywhere. Food for the frogs I suppose. When I was wandering around in the dam the other day I only saw one big fat black tadpole. The water has been fairly shallow there - it might all change now. 

We've also had plenty of cockatiels in the last month. 

There were spectacular thunderstorms last night and a bit of rain (5mm?). I went out to see whether there were signs of tadpoles in the pond this morning (there were) and was surprised to see a cockatiel perched in the tree above the pond. It looked like a younger one (small) and is the first we've seen around here, though Mum says she's seen them in the roadside reserves. On the bird front there have been a few grass parrot chicks found on the ground in the scrub here lately, must be time to learn to fly.