Tree frogs
Ceridwen Lloyd (Fri, 01 Nov 2013 14:37:58 PDT)
It has been frog-a-rama here after a decently wet winter and spring, if the chorusing of the Pobblebonks and number of ibis in our bottom paddock are anything to go by. It has been a kind season for the creatures - the Daily Duckling Count shows so far 100% survival (wood ducks) - so I am expecting to see a lot more snakes, though so far nothing. Usually a squashed red-bellied black in our road is the first sign of spring! The brown snakes wake up in October and are at their most aggressive, so I am keeping our witless terrier shaggy and un-clipped until it's too hot for her. I have been told that baby brown snakes are especially fond of slugs, hence attracted to watered nursery areas. (I flushed out a particularly pretty red-bellied black after repairing some irrigation last year, but I'm sure it's not far away)
I can confirm that the fox's lady friend says nothing, just screams eerily and drives the dogs nuts. Being feral here they are shot as pests.
Local male koalas are doing their booming basso growls in the old-growth gums most days - the first white settlers must have been expecting massive lion-bear monsters.
Too long a post, so nothing about birds except "lots".
Sent from my iPhone
On 2 Nov 2013, at 6:29 am, Jyl Tuck <genus1954@gmail.com> wrote:
Dear Joyce, We too had so many tree frogs this year. They were every
where and every size and colour that it made me curious and I took many
photos of them and researched them. It turns out that the colour
variations are them responding to changes in tempeture and humidity. They
went from the normal lime green to brown and some with shimmering flex of
gold ( they looked like jewels).
I also have learned that you can tell the health of an area by its
bio-diversity and the frog is a key species. We know that frogs are
vanishing every where ------- they are the first to disappear. So we feel
very proud that we now see 2 species here when we saw none the first years.
We have cleared property (because it had been left to over grow by aging
owners), but we have immediately growen a more diverse tree and plant group
in its place.
I'm sorry to say our biggest threat pest is that they are looking at
logging the land around us. We have no way to fight this. We have tried.
Seems after all our hard work, I can co-exist with all manner of sharp
clawed furry animal or slithering or burrowing creature, but man is the
hardest to reason with.
This is why I love nature, we need each other. Jyl Tuck
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