Posted by Rob Collings on July 12, 2016 at 10:58pm
I was late picking some Rapini for dinner tonight and noticed unusual leaf movement on some Kohlrabi leaves. Turns out it was an Eastern Dwarf Tree Frog hopping around. I can't recall seeing a frog at this time of the year before.
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The best type of guard animal IMO. Frogs are often described as bioindicators and if you have them living happily in your garden you know you are doing something right.
Thanks for the info, Elaine and Rob. We had a healthy pond for about 8 years, with some ozygenating weed and pacific blue eyes native fish, but no frogs. The silly thing is, we live a stone's throw from Frog's Hollow, an old swamp area with a creek in the Zillmere area, which used to be called Zillmans waterholes. Pity that things change, though they say it is for the best.
The frog pond needs to have very small fish in it or the eggs and any taddies which survive will be eaten. Good that you got Pacific Blue Eyes to survive in still water Rob. They are tricky fish in home garden ponds. The Chinese White Clouds are as tough as and breed enthusiastically (and will do so I imagine in local creeks so they are a menace-in-waiting) accept cold winter water much better than the Blue Eyes. There are Blue Eye variants in all the coastal rivers going north and some are more flexible in their requirements than others.
Thanks heaps for the info and history Elaine... that fills some gaps there. There is enough detail on this page Qldfrogs to confirm the frog & tadpole relocating status quo is... not to conduct the action of relocation, in fact illegal (now, not last century). For me to know better and do otherwise is against the faith I have in good scientific advice from what I assume is good qualified research.
The hard work you and many others did back then may have given the opportunity for strong frog colonies to re-establish before that exotic fungus changed the state of play. I'm guessing it's been recently concluded that no restoration-via-relocation is the better of two evils (for now anyway).
Christa, those Dainty Tree Frogs in the pictures from 2009 were in a pot plant overhanging a fish tank, which at the time had water, aeration and pacific blue-eyes. The same tank now has Jade Perch as it's part of the small AP system. The tank distance from the ground was many times that required to avoid cane toads. Many frogs were made that summer thanks to the accidental setup.
A fish tank would be overkill, however it shows that they came when the conditions were made available ... mind you there has always been a permanent water source 40 meters from were the fish tank exists, so the frogs may not have had too far to travel.
Here's two links which might be of interest. There should be some books in the Library about Frogscaping or Attracting Frogs to your garden.
In times past I was involved with Rana Frog Club (Restoring Australian Native Amphibia) but it seems to have disappeared from the net. The Queensland Frog Society might still be on the net.
There was a time when - forget their names now - but a brother and sister around St Lucia started to give away tadpoles. Then Rana got involved in that and we distributed millions of tadpoles over several years. Then the academics bought into it warning about spreading diseases and mixing the genetics. As far as I know, wholesale moving of tadpoles (or mature frogs) has ceased although it might just be because I have dropped out of active involvement, and I just don't know.
The exhortation to build a pond and they will come is quite, if unbelievably, true. Getting one of those books for siting and planting will be a great help and you never know you might hear some croaks, plops or wheezes one night in summer.
That would be very good, Rob. It would be a good learning curve for me and will give me time to read, learn, and establish a suitable site and provide protection plants. Exciting stuff.
Yes Christa. In the late 80s, my Dad acquired assorted frog tadpoles for free from a kind lady at St. Lucia. We lived in Ferny Hills. The frogs spread wide around the neighbourhood as they establish terror ties and large losses occur, but the end result was the sound of frogs for years.
We raised the tadpoles following the printed instructions which came with the tadpoles, feeding them lightly boiled lettuce and other stuff (can'r remember) ... so ... I'll have to research before doing the same (I might find someone experienced already dong this hopefully), but if not, I'll do the checks (possible reasons why I should not do this would be included in my research) ... however, my intention would be to learn the ropes of encouraging to get the frogs to spawn, ID of tadpoles ... etc .... then get the babies to you with similar instructions, (like feeding, sticks in water to allow the frogs to climb out and chill when the time comes . I would presume that this would be a reality in spring/summer rather than now, but that gives me time to learn ... if I find someone already doing this, even better .... stay tuned!
It is a lovely frog, Rob. This is something I would like to encourage in my garden. It is easy to set up a pond and even some surrounding plants, but we have not seen or heard a frog in this neighbourhood for yonks. Do you know if tadpoles can be relocated.
Comments
The best type of guard animal IMO. Frogs are often described as bioindicators and if you have them living happily in your garden you know you are doing something right.
That's as cool as a cool thing mate.
Thanks for the info, Elaine and Rob. We had a healthy pond for about 8 years, with some ozygenating weed and pacific blue eyes native fish, but no frogs. The silly thing is, we live a stone's throw from Frog's Hollow, an old swamp area with a creek in the Zillmere area, which used to be called Zillmans waterholes. Pity that things change, though they say it is for the best.
The frog pond needs to have very small fish in it or the eggs and any taddies which survive will be eaten. Good that you got Pacific Blue Eyes to survive in still water Rob. They are tricky fish in home garden ponds. The Chinese White Clouds are as tough as and breed enthusiastically (and will do so I imagine in local creeks so they are a menace-in-waiting) accept cold winter water much better than the Blue Eyes. There are Blue Eye variants in all the coastal rivers going north and some are more flexible in their requirements than others.
Thanks heaps for the info and history Elaine... that fills some gaps there. There is enough detail on this page Qldfrogs to confirm the frog & tadpole relocating status quo is... not to conduct the action of relocation, in fact illegal (now, not last century). For me to know better and do otherwise is against the faith I have in good scientific advice from what I assume is good qualified research.
The hard work you and many others did back then may have given the opportunity for strong frog colonies to re-establish before that exotic fungus changed the state of play. I'm guessing it's been recently concluded that no restoration-via-relocation is the better of two evils (for now anyway).
Christa, those Dainty Tree Frogs in the pictures from 2009 were in a pot plant overhanging a fish tank, which at the time had water, aeration and pacific blue-eyes. The same tank now has Jade Perch as it's part of the small AP system. The tank distance from the ground was many times that required to avoid cane toads. Many frogs were made that summer thanks to the accidental setup.
A fish tank would be overkill, however it shows that they came when the conditions were made available ... mind you there has always been a permanent water source 40 meters from were the fish tank exists, so the frogs may not have had too far to travel.
Here's two links which might be of interest. There should be some books in the Library about Frogscaping or Attracting Frogs to your garden.
In times past I was involved with Rana Frog Club (Restoring Australian Native Amphibia) but it seems to have disappeared from the net. The Queensland Frog Society might still be on the net.
There was a time when - forget their names now - but a brother and sister around St Lucia started to give away tadpoles. Then Rana got involved in that and we distributed millions of tadpoles over several years. Then the academics bought into it warning about spreading diseases and mixing the genetics. As far as I know, wholesale moving of tadpoles (or mature frogs) has ceased although it might just be because I have dropped out of active involvement, and I just don't know.
The exhortation to build a pond and they will come is quite, if unbelievably, true. Getting one of those books for siting and planting will be a great help and you never know you might hear some croaks, plops or wheezes one night in summer.
That would be very good, Rob. It would be a good learning curve for me and will give me time to read, learn, and establish a suitable site and provide protection plants. Exciting stuff.
damm auto-correct, Territories ... not terror ties :)
Yes Christa. In the late 80s, my Dad acquired assorted frog tadpoles for free from a kind lady at St. Lucia. We lived in Ferny Hills. The frogs spread wide around the neighbourhood as they establish terror ties and large losses occur, but the end result was the sound of frogs for years.
We raised the tadpoles following the printed instructions which came with the tadpoles, feeding them lightly boiled lettuce and other stuff (can'r remember) ... so ... I'll have to research before doing the same (I might find someone experienced already dong this hopefully), but if not, I'll do the checks (possible reasons why I should not do this would be included in my research) ... however, my intention would be to learn the ropes of encouraging to get the frogs to spawn, ID of tadpoles ... etc .... then get the babies to you with similar instructions, (like feeding, sticks in water to allow the frogs to climb out and chill when the time comes . I would presume that this would be a reality in spring/summer rather than now, but that gives me time to learn ... if I find someone already doing this, even better .... stay tuned!
It is a lovely frog, Rob. This is something I would like to encourage in my garden. It is easy to set up a pond and even some surrounding plants, but we have not seen or heard a frog in this neighbourhood for yonks. Do you know if tadpoles can be relocated.
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