A Bellingen Diary

The evening started off well when I spotted a pair of Wompoo Fruit Doves outside my kitchen window, hanging upside down and feasting on the berries of a Bangalow palm.  This spectacular bird with purple, yellow and green plumage, also called the Magnificent Fruit Dove, is usually found in rainforests so I was thrilled to see them in the garden.  They make a sound like a drain, or a rock being thrown into water.  If you Google “wompoo” you will find better photos than I was able to take.

Then I heard the unmistakable call of the Common Tree Frog – also known as the Dunny Frog for its fondness for sitting just under the rim of toilet bowls. (Quite disconcerting if you are not expecting it!)  It is one of Australia’s largest frogs, and can often be found in drainpipes where it uses the acoustics to project its mating call.  They have been known to live up to 20 years, so maybe it will be around for a while (hopefully not in my drainpipes).

Then … the drought broke, and it started to rain.  As I left the pond I counted five Dwarf Tree frogs, two Red-Eyed Tree frogs, one Common Tree frog, and one Smooth Toadlet all singing their version of the Halleluiah Chorus.

It’s been an eventful fortnight down by the pond, and not all of the news is good.

First there was the bandicoot problem.  You’ve heard of bandicoots?  Well they are not sweet little nocturnal creatures that snuffle and squeak and play in the garden at night, they are rotten little bastards that sneak in under cover of darkness, dig holes in your landscaping, pull out plants and throw mulch everywhere.  I’ve had to erect a “bandicoot barrier” which is not exactly the look I was after.

Then there was the algal growth caused by sunlight … I’ve had to install a shade sail to cover the pond until the tree-ferns grow big enough to take over.  Again, not exactly the look I was after.

Then there was the death (my fault) of twelve goldfish!  I was enthusiastically watering the surrounds of the pond with tapwater, and it seems that goldfish are more fragile than you would think and die at the mere whiff of chlorine.  Strangely, three goldfish have survived, although they may still die of cardiac arrest as the result of my tame kookaburra taking regular “dive-bomb” baths, causing panic and minor tidal waves.

On the upside – two more frogs have arrived.  The Eastern Dwarf Tree frog is smaller than the first joint of your little finger but sounds like a large ratchet.  And the evasive little Smooth Toadlet, called smooth because it is less warty than other toadlets, it makes a squelching sound.  There have also been several blue tailed damsel flies swooping and landing on the pond edges.
All good news …

Another frog has answered the call and made it across the parched paddock to my pond. Somehow I doubt that there will be many more until we have some rain … the town that floods regularly is having a “drought”.  We’ve had no proper rain since the beginning of July.
Dare I wish for rain ???

Well, as the saying goes … “If you build it, they will come”

And last night the first frog arrived to check out the new pond – barely five weeks after I finished landscaping the edges.  It’s my second favourite frog – the red-eyed green tree frog.  I was aware that there was a colony nearby as their calls could be heard in the distance after rain … but I’m amazed they made it uphill and across an open paddock in such a short time.
How did they know ?????

Sadly, my favourite frog sounds website has been taken down, but I here is a link to a You Tube posting which will tell you why it’s also known as the “raucous tree-frog“. It looks like I might be in for a noisy summer !!