Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Toadbust 6 - 25/1/11 - Mororo

It was a hot and steamy night - argh! The insects!! Actually, while we moaned about the insects in our eyes, noses and mouths, it was perfect for toading and the reptiles and native frogs were out in force.

We had a great roll up of 11 volunteers and picked up a massive 528 cane toads. 118 of these were from Nicola's place on Mororo Road, but the most exciting find of the night was a Stephen's Banded Snake!! These guys are a threatend species in NSW and a record here in toad central is very good to have on file.

Stephen's Banded Snake
 Kath and Ant's team tried very hard and the lovely Janet Cavanaugh had a great time out. But the prize went to Bevan, Rob, Bernie and Sharon Robbins (and me) for picking up 394 toads. 268 of these were from one property at the end of Lewis Lane. The sound of the males calling was deafening when we arrived.

Janet shows off her catch.
Thanks everyone for a great night toading. Cheers, Sharon.

Coucal pheasant feeds cane toad juveniles to young

This wonderful story and accompanying photos were passed on to me from Lyle McNamara. Photos taken by Alan Rayward.

Alan Rayward had been photographing a Coucal feeding young at his Byron property and spotted this one carrying what appears to be a Cane Toad. It fed it to a single chick. Young left the nest a week later -- alive.




Toadbust 5 - 15/2/10 - Brooms Head

A keen crew of 8 met up at the Brooms Head Bowling Club for a night of intense competition. As I drove into Lake Arragan I was telling Bevan and Rob that "we never see cane toads down this road" - think again! We picked up a heap from the paperbarks camping area near Lake Arragan. Very concerning. The toads are going gang busters down there this season.

Our team headed back to the bowling club, very smug with our 128 toads, to meet up with Kath and Jo's team. They also had 128 toads from the village (go figure!) but as we were gloating, Beth picked up another 1 to add to the village team so they creamed us! 257 for the night.

Frogs legs for dinner anyone?

Toadbust 4 - Lower Mororo - 26/11/10

Eight people picked up 90 toads in the lower Mororo area. A large male and female toad were found very close to the gate at the lower end of Chatsworth State Recreation Area, so that is very concerning. Funniest moment of the night was Bevan and his crew nearly getting eaten by Andrew's big pig dogs (woops! I knew I forgot to ring someone!!). Cheers, Sharon.

The amazing Bethany.