24/02/12 - Warregah Island drain of doom

Well 8 toadbusters braved the storm just before 7:30pm to check out what was happening at Warregah Island. Unfortunately we collected a whopping 263 toads but there were 6 times that many mosquitoes on each of us at any one time.

Bevan, Sharon L and Sharon R tackled the drain of doom near Graeme's place with little action (mind the eels!) and poor Sharon R had a hole in her gumboot. Max and Glenis, David and Kaleb were back after last week so wonderufl to see some keen new toadbusters. Kaleb had about 10 toads in one hand at one point during the night.

No photos (the mosquitoes stole my camera) but thank you Rob and Bevan as usual and the rest of the crowd. I have 4 vols for next Sunday night (Rob, Bevan, max and Glenis) so please let me know if you can make it as well. Cheers, Sharon.

Warregah Island Toadbust 18/11/11

What another great roll up of volunteers - thank you everyone! Eleven toadbusters and 5 of those were junior Landcare volunteers!!

Bethany, Tom, Darcy, Isabella and Sam with some of the cane toads they collected themselves Friday night.

My children and I kidnapped the amazing Bethany who was able to guide and mentor my two and newbies Darcy and Sam. Ros was also a first timer and worked out she was very good at spotting toads and then calling for a small child to come and collect it. It all helps Ros and when you have 5 excited children the adults rarely get a look in! I think I picked up 2 toads out of the 142 we collected.

Bevan, Rob, Sharon and Annie went out the west side of the island with one of the landowners and found very few out there. I am very interested in monitoring our impact at Warregah as it is such a small sem-isolated area. Thanks again everyone for your enthusiasm. We did not see our endangered friend again but the good news is we did not find him flat on the road! Get your gumbies ready for a big night at Maclean/Townsend Friday 2nd Dec. Let Jo, Mel or I know if you can come and I look forward to seeing what is going on in this area. Cheers, Sharon.

Darcy with large female cane toad

Sam with the same large female cane toad.

15/10/11 - Let the toadbusting season commence!

With lightning crackling and rain threatening, 3 intrepid toadbusters set off to Warregah Island to celebrate the start of the official CIA toadbust season. As texted to Secret Agent Davidge "we laugh in the face of danger - ba ha ha!"

It was so nice to catch up with the landholders and they all provided so much support and local information over the phone and on the night. Matt G and Reid from USYD came along to observe Bevan, Ant and I as we bagged 78 cane toads for the night. It was a little hard not to feel like a lab rat a few times!

The best score for the night was finding an endangered frog - absolutely jaw dropping.

Giant Barred Frog (Mixophyes iteratus) - endangered in NSW.

We suspect this big frog took a wrong turn at the bridge.

We also found a Barn Owl on Chatsworth Island on the way home. I love getting out at night!

Barn Owl on Chatsworth Island

So, a little cool still but we would like to think we took a few toads out that were stretching their flippers and thinking about getting up to no good for the night. See you at Brooms Head Friday night! Cheers, Sharon.

6/05/11 - Warregah Island toadbusting in the freezer!

Five brave volunteer souls trekked out to Warregah Island for the last time this season to see how the toads were going. One word answer - cold!!

Yes, while Rob, Sharon D, Ant, Beth and myself donned jumpers and gloves, Bevan chose to go the Radiators concert. However, we picked up 309 toads, all except 4 of which were juveniles and they were so cold. They had difficulty moving and were all up around houses and in vege gardens.

How cool is this girl? Bethany braves the cold (and takes another stunning photo).

The fabulous Graham (local landowner) took us out in the farm ute (with a step ladder to get in and out - what service!) and I nabbed one unlucky male sitting in the vegetation along the drains. My theory is that the larger toads have hunkered down in moist places and slowing down but the juveniles need to come out to feed as they have little reserves. Graham said the ground was moving a few weeks ago with metamorphs so these guys were obviously trying to pack on the pounds before winter. Hopefully many will dessicate and there are at least 309 less of them!

Rob casually mentioned it was his 60th birthday, so what dedication? At least he comes out on his birthday as well as Caroles! We will need to reassess whether we go out to Mororo next week. I will make a decision this weekend. Keep an eye on the calendar and watch for a dinner/stars fun night I want to raise at the meeting tonight (no killing anything involved).

Cheers, Sharon.

Toadbust 12 - Warregah Island - 18/02/11

The new "Warregah Warriors" went out last Friday night while I stayed at home and had a glass of wine on the lounge with my husband - ahhh. To tell the truth, the Rugby was on so I did some work while TMUHITW ("The Most Understanding Husband In The World" as everyone else calls him) wondered what I was doing at home on a Friday night! The glass of wine part was true...

Anyway, back to the Warregah Warriors - Ant, Bevan, Rob, Beth, Sharon R and Bernie went out with local landholder and toad hater Graham again and bagged a massive 86 cane toads. Ant reports catching another 4 large female toads and some access issues again - deep water and thick vegetation in some areas.

Well done guys! Cheers, Sharon.

Toadbust 9 - 11/02/11 - Warregah Island

Tonight was the night to hand over Warregah Island to Bevan, Rob and Ant. We had 10 recruits, which was a great roll up. Laura and Kevin came along to check out what a toadbust involves, after spending hours that day fixing dodgy myna traps, mind you! What wonderful CIA Landcare volunteers you guys are, thank you. I'm not sure if they will come back after facing Kath's Drain of Terror, which claimed another victim, Simone (karma baby).

Graham, one of the local landowners, reported how the toads had exploded on the island since the rains. Graham does a great deal of his own control and welcomed the assistance of our crew. He took Ant, Sharon D, Colby and Bethany on a tour of the western side of the island and Ant came back shaking his head saying "there are a lot of toads out there".

Colby and Bethany, Junior CIA Landcare members are concerned that we do not have enough volunteers to tackle the toads. (I actually told them to look like their teacher had just told them they had 3 assignments due tomorrow!)

When I pulled up to meet Graham, he was waiting for us on his verandah and watched as I pulled up and ran over his favourite big green tree frog (which screamed). Luckily, the fellow deserved an Oscar and was found safe and sound under the grid. I had just frightened the green out of him. Phew!

We bagged 132 toads all up, which pushes our CIA toads picked up number to 1,735 toads! Not bad considering we had a slow start to the season with all the rains, floods and general fantastic toad breeding conditions going on. But the toads we got were big - only 10 juveniles bagged and we saw a few patches of tadpoles. We bagged 17 females that were at least 3 years old and over 30 male toads that were 2 years and older.

Funniest moment of the night was Simone working out how the toads kept getting out of her net - she had a hole in it! Best moment of the night was Bevan and Ant saying they want to go back next friday night to hit it again. My eyes welled up with tears - she's all yours boys - go for it!!

Warregah Island 22/10/10 - is it too early to get excited?!

A keen group of 8 CIA volunteers laughed at the rain and thunderstorms and trekked to Warregah Island to see what we had to face this season. Kath and Judith were there as usual...

and then Sharon D joined the party. Soon after, Bevan's rent-a-crowd turned up with Rob, Simone and Marie. Our first exciting find was a frog on a stick! How cool is this??

but the most exciting thing of the night was to find only 61 toads, 40 of which were sub-adults, that is, the metamorphs we missed last year. We still got a few large toads, but I'm quietly confident we can make a big difference in this isolated population this season. Local landholder Graham is also doing a great deal of control many nights.
This is an important area to control and until we return in January, I wont call it, but I was very excited to see our tally sheet for the night. Actually, no, the best thing of the night was seeing Kath doing ballet in the muddy drain, one gumboot stuck in the mud, one socked toe pointing out behind her while I clutched her and pulled the gumboot out. Bevan had to get Kath off her bot and she had the mud to prove it! Kath, you make us laugh every time, but I know I wont get you back to Warregah!!