24-28.June.2016 (Day 19-23)

Toadsville, Population: 6,879(- 130)

Even after reading all about the cane toad invasion, after hearing about it from countless experts, and seeing firsthand how resilient they can be, it still astounds me how determined they are to belligerently hop into parts of Australia that I never would have guessed tropical toads would survive.

The third long drive in a week went relatively smoothly (especially considering I’ve been up and down long stretches of this highway six times already).

The route

We were heading for a small campsite without a name. 

Keith and his son were after rocks. I was after toads.

The closer we got (which is a pretty relative term since we were out in the middle of nowhere) that deeper the pit in my stomach. Exactly a week earlier I had driven a similar distance, into a near identical habitat on the opposite side of the territory, only to be skunked and find no toads.

Fool me once…

Most of the roads were unmarked too, so we had to go off kilometer distances and the cars odometer.

“Okay, we’re hitting the ‘town’ of Top Springs (Population: 2 old curmudgeons), reset the odometer and we’ll take a left in another 104km”

It's happening in Top Springs, Australia

By the time we turned off the paved road and started driving through the bush I was getting pretty worried “You sure you’ve seen cane toads at this spot Keith?”, “Should we start making a backup plan for the morning?”

 My neurosis aside, you have to give me some credit, this wasn’t looking very toad friendly.

Desolation wilderness (Aus ed.)

Every once and a while we would see signs of life, normally crowded with insects and birds trying desperately to survive.

Yellow lupine (Lupinus luteus)

Just like a mirage, in the middle of nowhere, was a grove of trees and our campsite. There’s not a whole lot that will shut me up in most cases. Finding this body of water out in arid Australia can definitely go on that list (my wife is taking notes).

Oasis (noun): a fertile spot in the desert, where water is found

There were birds, fish, mammals, amphibians, and a few reptiles, all crowded around the only body of water for 100km (~60 miles).

There were plenty of my, hands down, favorite Australian birds the rainbow bird-eater.

Fresh from a little dip in the pond

I was so excited to see what I thought was a ‘rare’ flock of white cockatoos

Western corella (Cacatua pastinator)

Turns out, these weren’t in any way, shape, or form and oddity to see. And turned out to be the world’s most annoying alarm clock.

Where’s the snooze on this thing?

There were some cool black ones too. While chasing them frantically with my camera I ran into some other campers who asked if I was “after the white or black cocky’s?”.

Umm excuse me? I guess I'm after the black cocky.

Red-tailed black cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus banksii)

With the sun slowly setting and bird pictures stored safe in the camera I also decided to follow the pond up to find if it connects to a larger water source (in case the campsite proved toad-free). The place stunk of sulphur the farther I went up and I eventually found a small pool of water that bubbled up under the roots of a tree. It was a natural spring! Meaning there’s water here all year. Which means if toads found this spot they’d have a place to breed. Which means toads and toads and toads! (If you can’t tell, I was pretty nervous and excited at this point).

The source of all life in the area

With renewed confidence and a mild sense of relaxation, I was able to sit back and soak in the beautiful NT sunset.

As the sun goes down, the toads come up

Three different researchers at the station were interested in having toads from this area. As far as they knew, this was probably one of the more southern populations of toads in the NT. My 30 toads included, I was after ~125 adult toads, equal numbers of males and females. When it finally got dark I went down to the water and was semi-discouraged to only find a handful soaking up some early evening agua.

She had no idea what was coming…

Thinking I would have trouble enough collecting my 30, I resigned myself and starting thinking of an apology for my colleagues “Sorry mate, only enough for my experiment, I hope you understand.”

I had heard about a phenomenon that most likely helped toads cross the dry regions at the Gulf of Carpentaria. Word has it, and there was even a paper published  (with one of the greatest titles ever), that they use cow dung (or cowpats as the Ozzies say) to stay hydrated and make it through the hotter regions of Australia on their way to more permanent water sources.

Walking back to camp with a hard won bag full of 20 toads I finally witnessed what all the fuss was about.

Insert corny dad-joke here

What a crappy life.

Did you hear about the movie Constipation? It never came out.

Is this stool taken?

I can do this all day, but I’ll stop before it gets corny (last one, I promise).

Cowpats are my new best friend, we rustled up 125 toads in no time once we realized that was the toad watering hole.  

The other places I’ve sampled toads were relatively devoid of other life forms. I was happy to see a still functional ecosystem despite a hefty toad population.

Rockhole frog (Litoria meiriana)

These frogs have a really cool call that sounds just like Morse code (I should also note that they’re quite the jumpers and not easily captured).

And as usual my gift/curse for finding the smallest example of large animals won out again.

Freshwater crocodile (Crocodylus johnsoni)

Known by the Ozzies as freshie, they’re not nearly as deadily (or man-eating) as saltwater crocs (saltie). Males and females are normally over 2 meters (~6 ft.) and are considered ‘small’ crocodilians. They’re known to be fairly shy, so I was pretty pumped to see this little guy. The main characteristic that lets you know it’s a freshie is the narrower snout.

The moon hasn’t been rising as early lately, which also gave me a chance to soak in the stars. I think I could stare at the NT night sky all night if I didn’t know I had full day of rock collecting ahead of me.

Night sky over NT

Keith and his son Jake were excited to go find rocks and I joined along. There were beautiful chunks of quartz scattered across the desert along with all manner of strange colored stones strewn about in haphazard fashion. 

Quartz

Rock-hounds (or fossickers to those in the know) enjoy barren stretches of desert and grassland that don’t necessarily do it for me. While I was honored to be part of the expedition, I won’t lie to you, the midday heat (and general weariness of walking slowly in circles picking up rocks) got to me eventually so I curled up under the shade of a tree for one of my favorite leisure activities.

Nap time

Toads, check.

Rocks, check.

~10 hr drive over with, check.

3 of 4 field sites done with and I couldn’t be happier.