Another New Species for my Coles Creek Property

Several nights ago I heard a frog call out twice. It was close to the house, or on the outside wall of the house most likely. It sounded similar to a Person's Tree Frog but it was noticeably different. I got up to get my sound recorder but it didn't call again. I looked around and couldn't find the frog either.

The following night I was walking past the wall where I thought the frog was the previous night and I saw it briefly before it snuck up between some of the boards on the house. It looked a bit like a Peron's Tree Frog but it was a more consistent colour over it's body and it was much lighter.

Last night I saw the frog again and this time I was able to get some photos. I am extremely pleased to say that it is a Roth's Tree Frog. This is a new species for my Coles Creek property. I didn't think I would get them here as this area is about the southern most point of their range. This now takes the number of species that I have identified at my property to 27 and 20 of these species have been photographed for this blog this year. I am extremely lucky to have 27 species on a 45 acre block!!!


This is one of the four or more Green Tree Frogs that can usually be seen on the small veranda most nights of Summer.

Green Tree Frog

All of the photos below are of the same Roth's Tree Frog. I'm fairly certain that there are two of them and possibly even three.

Roth's Tree Frog

Roth's Tree Frog from above

At my property I get the two other species that look and sound quite similar to this species. People can have difficulties in identifying the differences between  Roth's Tree Frogs, Tyler's Tree Frogs and Peron's Tree Frog's. All of these can be seen on this blog. The colours of these frogs can change quite significantly from area to area, from day to night and even vary within the same area. I find that the Peron's Tree Frogs on my property, and generally in this area have splotches of darker colour through their skin colour as well as having numerous tiny green flecks over their body. This is not always the case though!! The eyes of Tyler's Tree Frogs and Peron's Tree Frogs have the cross shape pattern and the iris is a silver colour and has tiny black lines over it. Roth's Tree Frogs have a silver colour on the lower half of the iris and a red colour on the upper half of the iris. This is the most distinguishing feature of the Roth's Tree Frog along with the colouring on the inside of the legs and thighs.

The upper half of the iris is red and the lower half is silver with Roth's Tree Frogs

Roth's Tree Frog

The inside of the legs can be black to a bluish purple

You can see the colour on the inside of the legs in the photos below.  Tyler's Tree Frogs, Peron's Tree Frogs and Roth's Tree Frogs all have black and yellow on the thighs and inside the legs, toes etc. The main differences are that with Tyler's Tree Frog's the majority of the colour in this area is yellow with some black or dark coloured spots. With Peron's Tree Frogs the background colour is yellow and black is marbled over the areas and is in fairly equal proportions with the yellow. With Roth's Tree Frogs the black or bluish purple is more predominant with larger, regular shaped yellow patches.

A Roth's Tree Frog showing flashes of colour

The leg markings are more vibrant than the body markings below

The body markings are less vibrant than the leg markings above

The Roth's Tree Frog on the wall of the house

More pics and updates when more frogs are photographed and recorded.

The First Photograph of Another Species at my Property

Last night I went out to take some photos of the frogs on my Coles Creek property as they were extremely active last night. About 3 weeks ago the rocket frogs started calling again and last night they were in large numbers for the conditions. In a 150 m2  area close to the edge of the creek and dam there would have been approximately 120 Striped Rocket Frogs and on the opposite bank were about 20 Broad-palmed Rocket Frogs. Once the property starts to flood the Striped Rocket Frogs will number thousands  over the entire 45 acres and the Broad-palmed Rocket Frogs will reach many hundreds. The number last night is high for how dry the property is at present. Over the last several weeks as well I have seen massive numbers of the Wilcox's Frogs as well. Last night I spotted more than 60 without looking too hard. All, except for about 6 of the ones sighted were males.

While I was out taking photos I spotted a frog that I have seen many of, in my travels and I have photographed on several occasions. I have seen them on the property two times before but hadn't photographed them here. Last night I was lucky enough to see three of them and was able to photograph two of them!! They were the Ornate Burrowing Frogs. This keeps the number of species I have seen on my property at 26 species. I have now photographed 19 species at my property this year for this blog!

Two of the female Wilcox's Frogs that I saw were in amplexus.

A male and female Wilcox's Frog in amplexus

The same pair of frogs as above

The male is much smaller than the female and mainly yellow when breeding

The female is much larger and usually tan to grey in colour

The male can hold on even after the female jumps (which can be over 2 metres)

This is one of the many Striped Rocket Frogs that were seen. Getting a photo of them proved more difficult. As soon as I squatted near them, they jumped off or they were too difficult to photograph in amongst the reeds and plants.

Striped Rocket Frog

The same Striped Rocket Frog

This is a recording of the advertising call of the Striped Rocket Frog.

I was so surprised to see one of these Ornate Burrowing Frogs last night as they are not a common visitor here... or they are not seen regularly anyway. This species of frog can be highly variable in colour and skin texture even within the same location. The first few that I saw were nearly identical, except for their size.

Ornate Burrowing Frog

Ornate Burrowing Frog from above

Right side of the Ornate Burrowing Frog

Ornate Burrowing Frog from front on

Left side of the Ornate Burrowing Frog

The Ornate Burrowing Frog from directly above

The next few pictures are photographs of the second specimen of the Ornate Burrowing Frog that I saw a few minutes later.

The left side of the second Ornate Burrowing Frog

The right side of the second Ornate Burrowing Frog

The second Ornate Burrowing Frog again

I was surprised by how photogenic some of the Broad-palmed Rocket Frogs were, compared to the Striped Rocket Frogs. I didn't see any of them mixed in with the opposite species. They were both in their own groups on opposite banks. To hear them calling without seeing them I cannot tell the difference in their advertising call.

Broad-palmed Rocket Frog

Broad-palmed Rocket Frog close up

Right side of the Broad-palmed Rocket Frog

The same Broad-palmed Rocket Frog

This is a recording of the advertising call of the Broad-palmed Rocket Frog. Unfortunately you can hear a toad in the background. I'm sure that I won't hear it call out again though.

This is becoming a regular sight, with the male Wilcox's Frogs in amplexus with another species. At least this time it was a frog and not a toad. I wonder if this has to do with such a difference in numbers of males compared to females of this species or they just don't care!!

Wilcox's Frog in amplexus with a Striped Rocket Frog

A Wilcox's Frog in amplexus with a Striped Rocket Frog again

A few more photographs that I was able to get of another specimen of the Striped Rocket Frogs.

Striped Rocket Frog

This was a big female Striped Rocket Frog from above

Left side of the female Striped Rocket Frog

The next three photographs are all of the same frog. When I was taking the photos I thought it was another Ornate Burrowing Frog as I had already seen three prior to seeing this frog. I knew it looked different in colour and slightly larger as well, as soon as I saw it. I also know that they can be greatly different in colour in one small area too. I didn't realise until I downloaded the photos though that the pupils are very different in this specimen. In all the photos of Ornate Burrowing Frogs that I have taken and the ones I remember seeing they all have a pupil pattern the same as the first Ornate Burrowing Frog in this blog. As far as I knew this was one of the distinguishing features of this species. Too be honest I'm not absolutely certain what this frog is. I assume that it is an Ornate Burrowing Frog but I will have to check with the experts.

I have checked with Aaron, an expert in frogs, and he has confirmed that these are indeed Ornate Burrowing Frogs. The difference in the pupil is due to the pupil being dilated, which must be less common when photographing frogs. He has given another or better identification for Ornate Burrowing Frogs as well. He said that all specimens that he has come across have a distinct plain circular patch behind the eyes. This should be used as a key feature along with eyes and body shape to help identify this species.

You can check out Aaron's amazing frog photos, and other animals also by clicking on the link below.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/23031163@N03/

A different colour variation of an Ornate Burrowing Frog

The same Ornate Burrowing Frog from above

The Ornate Burrowing Frog from above with the distinct circular patch

The Wilcox's Frog were very obvious in their breeding colours. It is great to see that their numbers have continued to increase on the property. They have also started to spread into other areas on the property.

Male Wilcox's Frog

The same Wilcox's Frog

Another male Wilcox's Frog

The same Wilcox's Frog from above

More pics and updates when more frogs are photographed and recorded.

Frogging Around my Property with Jono

Last Friday night Jono from Frogging Around http://froggingaround.com/blog/ came over to my place to have a look around at the species of frogs that I get on my property. It was a windy day and evening and it was cooler so this did effect the numbers of frogs that we saw. Many of the species for this time of year were out but in much lower numbers. As it gets wetter on the property the other species will turn up again.

Jono arrived just after 6 p.m. and we started looking down near the main dam near the house. We found a few Wilcox's Frogs straight away. We saw another male Wilcox's Frog trying to mate with a cane toad, which is becoming a regular sight here now and I saw one in a tree for the first time ever. I have only seen them on the ground prior to this at any location. All around the dam and creeks we could hear Eastern Dwarf Tree Frogs as well. There were quite a few but not near the number as the past few weeks due to the cooler night.

Wilcox's Frog in a tree

While we were making our way around the dam we could hear and see two Peron's Tree Frogs calling out as well. They were not in very good spots to try and get photos so we kept moving on to the next part of the property. Making our way through one of the dry creek beds we spotted many Striped Marsh Frogs, all of which were small, young frogs, most likely from last season. We also sighted a couple of Eastern Dwarf Tree Frogs.

Next we went up to near the house to spot another species which is regular most of the year round, the Green Tree Frogs that live around the verandas. We spotted one of the regulars. Next we went to the tanks where the Red Tree Frogs and Keferstein's Tree Frog live during the cooler months. We spotted only three tonight. They are so similar in appearance on the property that I have trouble identifying them unless they are calling, and the fact they live together and breed in the same place makes it even more difficult. After some discussions with a few frog experts, most of them agreed that they are more likely to be Red Tree Frogs.

Red Tree Frog

Next we made our way down to the rainforest section of the property to where the Great Barred Frogs and Tusked Frogs live. I was hopeful that we may see a Great Barred Frog as I heard the first one of the season calling only the night before. That in itself was surprising as I normally don't hear them here until after the creeks start to flow again in this area. Unfortunately we didn't see any but we did hear several Tusked Frogs in the area.

In the front paddocks I didn't think we would see much except for Striped Marsh Frogs which we did see many of, most of which were small also. We also sighted a first for my blog from my property. I have seen them on the property a few years ago but I hadn't photographed them. I had only seen two or three back then but tonight we saw about ten in total with little effort. With this species of the Spotted Marsh Frog now added to the list, that takes the total number of frogs photographed for the blog on my property to 18 this year, but the number of species seen on the property still stays at 26 as they are one species that has been identified.

All of the Spotted Marsh Frogs were small in size too. The first four or so that we saw looked like the first two photos. The others that were seen looked liked the last photos. I'm unsure of why there is a big difference in colour and skin texture, considering they were all found within the same general area and they were all about the same size. The frog experts that I consulted suggest that most likely they are all Spotted Marsh Frogs, as they can be highly variable in colour etc, within the same area.

One colour of the Spotted Marsh Frogs located

A different angle of the same Spotted Marsh Frog from above

This is the other colouring that the Spotted Marsh Frogs had, which is the colouring that I saw on them a few years ago on the property and have seen elsewhere.

Spotted Marsh Frog

The same Spotted Marsh Frog from above

A different angle of the same Spotted Marsh Frog from above

As we were making our way back to the house this fully grown Striped Marsh Frog jumped out in front of us. We saw heaps of them but only a few were fully grown.

One of the few large Striped Marsh Frogs sighted

Just before we went up the track to the house we heard some rustling in the grass. My first thought was a bandicoot, but after hearing it move again I knew it was an echidna. They can be regularly seen in this spot when the property isn't in flood. A nice find to finish off the night.

An echidna

Even though the quanity of frogs wasn't there compared to normal on my place we still saw relatively large numbers of some species and we did hear or see 8 different frog species for the night. Not too bad for this time of the year. A few minutes after Jono left a Dainty Tree Frog called out right near where his car was parked and about an hour later I heard the Great Barred Frog calling out again. I wished this happened while he was here as then it would have taken the number of species he saw or heard to 10 for the night on my property.

A good night frogging and good to finally meet Jono, another frog enthusiast from the coast.

More pics and updates when more frogs are photographed and recorded.