Woodleigh+Fauna+Project

This project commenced in 2007. My Year 11 Biology class set up a trapline of 9 buckets with a low fence about 85 metres long to catch local wildlife. We also conducted a stag watch and frog survey. This was partly for an assessment task for their studies in VCE Unit 2 and partly to collect some baseline data for the Woodleigh School Wildlife Reserve. We hope to see the diversity and abundance of native fauna increase as a consequence of the reserve opening and being managed for indigenous wildlife. The first trapline is adjacent to Golf Links Road in dense tea-tree scrub.

// Pseudocheirus peregrinus - // Ring tail Possum // Petaurus breviceps // - Sugar Glider // Tadarida australis // - White-striped Freetail Bat ** Birds ** // Podargus strigoides // - Tawny Frog Mouth ** Amphibians ** // Limnodynastes dumerili - // Pobblebonk // L. tasmeniensis - S // potted Marsh Frog // L. peroni - // Striped Marsh Frog // Litoria ewingi - // Ewings Tree Frog // Pseudophryne semiarmorata - // Southern Toadlet // Geocrinia haswelli - // Haswell’s Froglet (?) ** Reptiles ** // Eulamprus quoyii // - Eastern Water Skink(?) Spiders Beetles Ants Scorpion Millipede Centipede Slaters
 * Mammals **
 * Insects **

In 2008, we set up a second trapline of 9 buckets covering about a 90 metre length. This trapline is parallel to the boundary of the wildlife reserve below Swamp Paperbark beside a series of ponds. We carried out further stag watches and frog surveys and added a bird survey. 2007 had been a dry year, but the 12 months after the first survey had sustained and prolonged the drought with all but two of the months receiving below average rainfall. The effect of this was obvious with less abundance of species and a much quieter frog chorus. The Reserve, however, is having a positive effect with many bird species enjoying the safety of it's fences.


 * Birds**

White faced Heron Masked Lapwings Banded Dotterel Sulphur  Crested Cockatoo Galah Rainbow Lorikeet Eastern Rosella Crested Pigeon Pigeons* Magpie Magpie Lark Ravens Wood Ducks Swallows Noisy Minor Indian Myna* Wattle Birds Latham's Snipe Sacred Ibis Australian Bittern Dusky Moorhen Starling* Whistling Kite or Brown Falcon (certainly a raptor hunting in the paddocks - moved a little fast for me to get a good ID)
 * Mammals**

// Petaurus breviceps // Sugar Glider // Pseudocheirus peregrinus // Ring tailed Possum // Tadaria australis // White striped Free tailed Bat Cats* Dogs* Fox* Rabbit*


 * Amphibians**

Pobblebonk or Eastern Banjo Frog - // Limnodynastes dumerili // Spotted Marsh Frog - // L. tasmeniensis // Southern Brown Tree Frog – // Litoria ewingi // Southern Toadlet  – // Psuedophyrne bibroni //


 * Reptiles**

Tiger Snake Copper Head Snake Skink


 * Invertebrates**

Scorpion Spiders (a number of species) Bull Ants Jumping Jacks Small black ants Black Beetles Millipedes Centipedes Dragonfly Mosquito


 * Aquatic Invertebrates**

Thanks to my Year 7 class who have been studying Cells and Microscopes and have been checking the water in the ponds for signs of life. Dragonfly nymph Isopods Cephalopods Flat worms Nematodes Back Swimmers Freshwater Snails

My sons, Callum and Alex, have decided to continue and expand the Fauna Survey Project. During 2009, they intend to carry out regular stag watces, frog surveys, bird surveys and trapping, using the existing traplines and adding new trapping locations with different techniques.