Fernleigh Track wildlife observations, 4th November 2014

Dwarf eastern tree frog, Litoria fallax, Fernleigh track Belmont NSW  

I went for a walk along the Belmont North end of the Fernleigh track last night after dinner for a little bit of gentle exercise.  I was quite surprised at the paucity of wildlife activity because it had been a fairly warm day and was still a pleasant evening.  It's warm enough for mosquitos to be active now and insect repellent is definitely needed.

It was a quiet night with not much animal activity.  I put this down to two things; the moon was quite bright in the clear sky and there was about twelve knots of breeze blowing.

The reasons for a lack of activity on moonlit evenings appear to be pretty obvious.  I believe that the increased light levels make it much easier for a predator to see, hence most animals feel more vulnerable and try to lie low for a week or so.  Perhaps they concentrate their activity periods into bursts before or after the moon rises or sets.  My anecdotal observations indicate that even if the moon is behind thick cloud and it's raining heavily, animal activity is still reduced.  
The breeze is another factor that correlates to quiet evenings in the bush.  I personally believe that animals are probably more vulnerable during windy evenings because their sense of hearing is greatly diminished by the noise of the breeze.  Even snakes, which are considered to be deaf by human standards are less common on windy evenings.  I also suspect that evaporation rates may be increased during windy evenings.  This might make conditions less than pleasant for delicate animals such as frogs or the invertebrates the frogs eat.

But these are just personal hypotheses.  I am anthropomorphising if you like.  In all seriousness, there is no way to be sure, as we are humans, and not reptiles, frogs, fish, small mammals or invertebrates etc.  I am only guessing about the reasons I observe quieter activity patterns during these times.  

It was a very pleasing evening to be in my local patch of bush again, even if it was very quiet, animal wise.  Most of the activity was in the mature Melaleuca forest that borders a small swamp.  The trees excluded the breeze, and the air was still.  I saw a few spiders, and there were only a sparse handful of frogs calling.  I picked up the eye shine of a few young striped marsh frogs foraging on the floor of the Melaleuca forest.  I was lucky enough to watch a very small species of snake, harmless to humans, forage ever so slowly across the track.

What a gorgeous little frog.  A Dwarf eastern tree frog, Litoria fallax, Fernleigh Track Belmont NSW.

Frogs 
Common eastern froglet Crinia signifera 
Dwarf eastern tree frog Litoria fallax 
Peron's tree frog Litoria peronii 
Tyler's tree frog Litoria tyleri 
Striped marsh frog Limnodynastes peronii
Tusked frog Adelotus brevis       

Reptiles 
Dwarf crowned snake Cacophis krefftii 

So there you are, only seven species of herpetofauna heard or observed in the space of half an hour right in the middle of one of Australia's largest cities.  It was a quiet night in the bush indeed.