Finally, a frog has moved into my pond! It's a Limnodynastes peronii (Striped Marsh Frog) and okay, it's as common as muck, but it's wonderful that finally someone's got the hint.
No photos as yet (I've indeed yet to see him, having only heard his less than dulcet call), but here's a image to go on with (Creative Commons, of course!):
10 comments:
Hi Margaret -
Congrats on the new frogs :). I hope this post works!
Yay, it worked!
In your email you wrote:
the same species of
frog has colonised a pond in my back garden this spring.
I've only seen one frog - but having recently found a large
patch of frogspawn I'm going to go out on a limb and say
there's at least two.
I like their Tok, Tok calls.
Yes, it is a good call. I used to call them "dock frogs" before I learned what they were. :)
There's been a bit of debate about them colonising ponds to the exclusion of other species. I'd even read that their tadpoles exude some sort of hormone that inhibits the growth of other tadpole species. But the most recent thing I've heard is that they just often tend to be the first to colonise habitats, and because they can put up with less pristine environments, they will be the only species around. Hope that's the case, and that others turn up soon!
It's so exciting when you get spawn. Sometimes I collect the eggs and keep the taddies in a fish tank till they reach metamorphosis, to watch them do their amazing thing. Fabulous little creatures.
So noisy here today. It's quite a year for cicadas, isn't it!
Hi Margaret -
The cicadas can be deafening and you live so close that I suspect it's much the same where you are. Although I've seen three other types - the redeye seems the most common here in Berowra.
That photo of the "redeye" is stunning, David! Well done. I don't remember that particular species from my childhood, though it looks lots like a black prince, eyes excepted. Is it the same size as a black prince, or more like your green grocer or cherry baker? (Damn, the names are flooding back to me!)
Ack, I meant yellow baker or cherry nose. Obviously the names aren't flooding back as accurately as they might. ;)
Hi Margaret -
It's larger than a black prince (my photo is of a newly emerged female and she's still a little light in colouration) and small than a green grocer. The green grocers and yellow mondays are two colour morphs of the one species. Some of the green grocers we have in Berowra have some yellow on them and I presume they are somekind of intermediate.
Yesterday I found a very small cicada (maybe 20 mm total length) but it flew away before I could photograph it.
David.
Hi David,
The green grocers and yellow mondays are two colour morphs of the one species. Some of the green grocers we have in Berowra have some yellow on them and I presume they are somekind of intermediate.
Ah, okay. I'd assumed that they were different species. Are they classed as subspecies, do you know? (I'm much less on top of speciation/hybridisation in animals than I am with plants!)
Hi Margaret -
I'm afraid I dont know much about cicada taxonomy :).
So much to learn, so little time!
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