Woombah toads get hammered by Woombah Wildcats!

Bob and his team of secret CIA operatives have been hitting Woombah hard. They have been out twice last week and bagged a huge 110 cane toads in 2 nights - well done Wildcats!! Here are a few toad photos that Bob has sent thru.

Cane toads harvested at Woombah, Feb 2011. Photo: Bob Ahern

Cane toad from the Woombah area. Photo: Bob Ahern

Mini Myna Meeting - 16/02/11

Our Myna group had a mini myna meeting last Wednesday, which really helped to kick things off. Laura has agreed to be the Myna Trap Coordinator (hooray!) and has spent days calling people who had council traps and setting up the new system and new traps.

Frederick is going to be the Myna Data Collector, Pam has been developing some notes for public trappers and Pop has produced a magnificent trap. Gina, Kevin, Scott and myself were also there, so thank you to all the myna people who came along to get this rolling. We are still developing our "systems of operations" but I am confident we will get there. I am so appreciative of everyone picthing in and taking on roles. Thank you.

And it looks like Laura may have negotiated a deal with Acmena to make new traps for us. We are in urgent need of myna traps so this will work nicely. Cheers, Sharon.

CVCIA Toad Tally surpassess 2,000

The CIA Landcare volunteers have now picked up over 2,000 cane toads this season (ie. since July 2010). Well done team. February has been a huge month for us all. 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 11 - 12/02/11 - Woombah report

Now we are talking! 3 teams out in 3 different areas in one weekend. I'm sleeping a little better this week ;).
Bob sent in this report:

"We had Marie, Brian and myself plus two landholders on the chase, which worked out quite well, with plenty of excitement at the number of catches. We only missed about 5-6 toads, which was pretty good. The numbers collected for the night, which was around three properties off Island View Rd and dam area ... 110 toads in 2 hrs. We may have a night during the week and/or next Saturday night to try and catch up on Garretts Lane area and Goodwood Island area, see how the weather goes?? and chasers, till next time it 'RRRibitt from Toad Haul alias BOB".

Toad Haul! How did I not think of that?! Great work Woombah crew. So toadbusters, if you are looking for something to do next weekend you could go to Warregah Island Friday night, Woombah Saturday night or Yamba Roundup Sunday night. Or you could do all three!! Cheers, Sharon.

Toadbust 10 - Lake Arragan - 12/02/11

Jo headed out to Lake Arragan with new member Mel Saturday night and bagged a whopping 118 toads! They saw 2 dingoes and a white-crowned snake. What else would you do on a Saturday night?! Way to go girls!!

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!!