Last night was great for a little frog spotting with the moon giving us just enough to light a path to the farm dam. The audio and photographs in this short video clip were recorded last night and as you can tell, the frogs were quite active (and numerous) which is a good sign.

Frogs play an important role in the food chain, predating on insects while being prey for birds and snakes!

Farm dams such as this one can be made frog-friendly by planting native grasses, sedges and wattles around the edges, creating a year-round habitat to hunt, breed and shelter in. As the weather gets colder frogs will hibernate under stones and wood piles, so don’t be too quick in clearing fallen timber around the dam!

The frogs pictured are Peron’s Tree frogs, Litoria peronii, a large species of frog that can reach up to 7cm long. The yellow colouration on the thighs is a key identifying feature as is the call which some say sounds like a cackling laugh.

To help us identify this frog we used the Frog ID app which can be downloaded for free by following this link. The app has a ‘frogs near me’ feature and also has an extensive dataset of calls for each frog species and calls can be recorded directly into the app for ease of identification.

The Frog ID app is one of a growing number of Citizen Science empowerment tools playing a part in enhancing our understanding of the natural world. If you want to know more, get a bit of help understanding how this and other citizen science aps work or just chat through what you’ve found, get in touch with us at Mid Lachlan Landcare. We’re happy to help!

This particular dam is situated on a Box Gum Grassy Woodland site in Woodstock, near Cowra, NSW.