Faunal+Survey+2011


 * Faunal Survey 2011**

It's that time of year again! Time for the Unit 2 Biology students to study the ecosystem at Woodleigh and make suggestions for the future management of the school's ecosystem for the conservation of the native species and the humans that use the site. We will log our field work outcomes on this page - a bit like a blog.

We reset the trapline in the heathland at the front of the school on Friday 2 September. Unfortunately two of the lids were left off over the weekend so we had some unintentional data collection. 1 x Spotted Marsh Frog 1 x Weasel Skink - very large, therefore old?, but no longer living individual 1 x Garden Skink plus some slugs, slaters and centipedes.
 * 6 September 2011**

We haven't caught much this week, although we've had the traps open since Monday. We've reset the traps in the Eastern paddock of the Reserve and added a few more - so up to 7 x 20l buckets with house tiles on top. Lots of spiders Some slugs, slaters, worms, ants etc 1 x female Spotted Marsh Frog
 * 16 September 2011**

Yes, it's been awhile since I added to this blog - but we have been trapping, just not catching much apart from our usual array of invertebrates - worms, spiders (many varieties), ants, millipedes, and centipedes.
 * 25 October 2011**

Today, after a warm weekend, but with lots of rain as well it was raining frogs in the Heathland. We captured well over 20 frogs - all of which were identified as Pobblebonks. We also caught one Garden Skink and a hostile scorpion Black Rock Scorpion //Urodacus manicatus// (and all the usual invertebrates - certainly no shortage of food for our insectivores).

Meanwhile in the Reserve, the pickings have remained slim. We caught one Spotted Marsh Frog and a lot of insects, but nothing else.

The weather is warming up and the spring rains are maintaining soil moisture - so we should see much more activity in the next few weeks.


 * 27 October 2011**