3/02/12 - Mororo toad central

Six intrepid explorers set out for a night of big toad at Mororo. Bevan, Rob, Kath, Julio, Sharon and Bethany picked up 265 toads and met new CIA volunteer and owner Annie on Mororo Road. Sharon R sent a long a note from her mum excusing her from toading as the Lawrence ferry was out and she was not up for the swim. And you call yourself committed, Sharon?!

Processing our toads at Mororo

Bethany fell asleep all the way home (poor poppet) but the worst part of the trip was waking the next morning to find a horrible leech bite on the back of my legs. My husband and I stripped the bed but were unable to find the leech! He's out there somewhere....

29/07/11 - a cold night for toading!

Well Dr Matt wanted to go out in July to see if there were any cane toads active. I told him to pack his beanie! It was quite cold, but not as bad as I thought it was going to be. The dew did settle on us though as we toured around looking for toads. And did we see any cane toads? One poor juvenile and blow me down if it didn't have a manicure!! This means it was one of the few that Matt, Chris and I had toeclipped a few months ago. Unbelieveable!

We also heard and saw 3 species of native frogs who were very cold and thus allowed us to take their pictures easily enough. A fun night. I look forward to working more with the researchers in the field.

Dainty Green Tree Frog, Litoria gracilenta

Whirring Tree Frog, Litoria revelata

Peron's Tree Frog, Litoria peronii

Then on the way home, I saw my local Rufous Bettong AND I had my camera! It is so awesome getting out at night. Cheers, Sharon.

Gotcha! My local Rufous Bettong. Now Greg will believe me.

1/05/11 - Cane Toad Field Day

The inaugrual cane toad field day was a resounding success with approximately 30 people turning up to hear me blab on about cane toads and what landowners can do to reduce the incidence of breeding in farm dams and other waterbodies. I was able to demonstrate exclusion fencing (thanks to my husband!) and talked about all of the control methods available from manual control, to traps and even Hopstop.

Sharon Lehman points out the characteristics of this farm dam that makes it favoured by cane toads in the area.

After my talk, Dr Matt Greenlees gave a spiel on the latest research findings and what they want to do in NSW over the next five years. This really added to the day and everyone commented how interesting Matt's talk was. This gave hope to farmers that there are people working on the research side of things.

After Matt's talk we trekked around the 3 dams on Nicola and Gio's farm and discussed the features of each which made them ideal or not ideal for cane toad breeding. CVCIA volunteers have been visiting this property for over 3 years so we have a great deal of data from the area. Gio and Nicola also do many nights toad collecting and their knowledge of the dams was invaluable.

Clarence Landcare CSO Julie Mousley talks about vegetation that might be suitable for planting around farm dams to hinder cane toad breeding.

After the walk Julie Mousley showed everyone the vegetation that might be suitable for planting or retaining around dams or other waterways to reduce the success of cane toads breeding. Overall, I think the day went fabulously! Many thanks to Bevan and Rob who turned up early to help set up (legends), Julie for helping me organise it and doing so much, Dell for sorting out the lunches and Louise for washing everything up! And many thanks to Nic and Gio for letting us hold the day there. Gio added some wonderful humour to the day and I look forward to doing more of these across the Clarence.

Friday 29/04/11 - Research Trip with USYD Team

On Friday 29th April I took Dr Matt Greenlees and Chris for a tour of some local landowners and dams in the Mororo area. It was a little cold and Matt thought perhaps we had done TOO good a job in some areas as we visited dams I professed to be full of toads and found very few.

Matt showed me the correct way to measure a toad - snout to urostyle.

However, Harry's dam did not let us down and we captured quite a few toads, gave them a manicure and then let them go! I know, it was hard, but I learnt a heap and it got me thinking about next season. Hmmm...

We all got very wet - all in the name of research.
NB. I'm inside the car keeping the notepad & camera dry - very important job! 

15/4/11 - Mororo Toad bust

Rob, Bevan and I headed out on a cloudy Friday night. Rob has been itching to get back to Glen's dams at Mororo and we were not disappointed (re toad numbers that is). First we headed up to Nicola's and checked the 3 dams. This is sort of an unofficial research site for us now and the site of our landholder cane toad field day in a fortnight, so it was good to see what was going on. no toads in the house dam, tadpoles and two toads in the shed dam but we snagged 12 males out of the bottom dam.

We then picked up a few off Peter's place, especially around the shed, but from the entrance road into Peter's and the road, orchard and bottom dam of Glen's we bagged over 350 toads. Bevan caught this big guy below (look how happy he is) and all up we bagged 422 toads. The cool nights have not affected our tough Mororo toads yet!

Bevan is over the moon about catching this big boy - 325g of toad.

This has tipped CIA over the 4,000 toads picked up this season, and the entire tally has just tipped 10,000 toads (with Yamba roundup, NPWS, landowner and Russell all combined). Well done guys.

Only a few more toadbusts to go this season (check the calendar) but all my energy focused right now on our Landholder Cane Toad Field Day Sunday 1st May - all welcome. RSVP to sharon@cvcia.org.au . Cheers, Sharon.

Mororo Toadbust - 25/03/11

Ten volunteers turned up for Friday night toading at Mororo, including 3 newbies, which was fabulous. We were suitably entertained all night by the amazing Campbell - 6 years old and a fantastic toadbuster!

Campbell was amazing for his first night out toading!

We headed down McCondell Island Rd again to the half moon wetland with waders. We picked up two new toadbusters in their waders on the way:- Billy Bob and Jethro....

Billy Bob has the sack wrapped around him to stop the Hi-Vis glare.
We actually look like the rat sisters...

Billy Bob makes Jethro crack up.

As I said to Mel (who tried to take these photos while we clowned around), it is just lucky that Jo and I have no dignity left! Jo's waders were nice and loose. Mine were not. Mel had to assist me to slip into my waders and I wished I had bought some olive oil. However, they did the trick (and made us laugh for hours) and we were able to get into the deeper water and retrieve those pesky males floating around looking for love.

At the end of the night we had bagged 193 toads, including 2 between the wetland and the gate to Chatsworth SCA. Thank you to all the Sharon's (3 of us) and Mel's (2 of them), Bevan, Bernie, the gorgeous Annie, Jo and of course Campbell. We had a ball and helped the environment. Sweet.

Mororo Toadbust - Friday 25/02/11

My goodness me - it has taken me 2 hours to load all of the toad busting data from Woombah, Townsend and now this one. How great it is to have coordinators in three other areas - thank you!

Well, I went out last Friday night and was met by the Warregah Warriors (Bevan's rent-a-crowd), the Townsend Tigersnakes (Jo and Mel) and many others! We welcomed two new members from Woombah, Darrin and Kaitlin, though Kaitlin was not up for touching a toad just yet.

Kaitlin's spirit is willing, but the hands just won't do it! Lucky Dad is keen.

After sending a sick Kath home, we went down McCondle Island Rd in two teams. My team raced to the end of the road and through the gate to assess whether cane toads had spread up through into Chatsworth SCA or further. The good news was there were no toads at all past the half moon wetland. This is very exciting as hopefully we are keeping them out of Mangrove Creek.

The bad news was that there were 20 males at least sitting in the half moon wetland calling that we could not reach. I need to return with my waders (Mel offered her husband's jetski!) and pluck them off. We found another similar wetland on the way back (now called Kaitlin's wetland) that requires the waders and/or jetski.

Some large toads from the Mororo area.

Bevan, Rob, Simone and Sharon D swept along the road from the grid and collected a massive 119 toads. Our crew only bagged 36 but I was beaming from the results at the end of the road. I picked up toads further along last year so I'm hoping we are seeing a small win there. Time will tell. We need these little rays of sunshine! All up 155 toads and a good night. Cheers, Sharon.

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.

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.