Hurry Save The Murray!

The Finniss River is running under the ford on Winery Road and the frogs at Wally’s Landing are in full voice. Listen.

A few emails and the frogs were identified - Spotted Grass Frog or Spotted Marsh Frog (Limnodynastes tasmaniensis).

The Spotted Grass Frog is common throughout Australia and has a particular affection for the Lower Lakes which is reflected in its name “Limnodynastes” = “lord of the lake”. This frog is often one of the first colonising species into recently inundated floodplains, and is found in dams, roadside ditches, ponds and slow moving creeks, in urban areas, farmland, woodland, coastal areas and arid areas. It is very welcome at Wally’s Landing.

The Frog Atlas tells us that the Spotted Grass Frog “is characterised by olive-green or brown spots on a pale greyish-brown background which may change over the course of the day, being particularly pale at night. The belly is smooth and white. Breeding males have a dark yellow-green throat. Many specimens have a mid-dorsal stripe which may range from white or yellow through to rusty red. Females have large flaps of skin on the first two fingers.
Male size: 31-42 mm
Female size: 32-47 mm”
To learn more visit the Frog Atlas website and if you’d like to listen to the distinctive calls of this frog, just follow the links.