Hot nights and a few frogs.

 

The last few days and nights have been unseasonally warm. Mid to high thirties with little respite during the night. No rain but the frogs have still been out and about with a few species including Cane Toads calling to try and attract a mate for some late season breeding.

I have noticed quite a few snakes (dead on road) around as well which is a real shame. One in particular this afternoon on the Mooloolaba offramp from the highway a good two metres from the edge of the only lane must have taken a considerable effort to reach without running off the road. It's a bit sad that unreasonable fear of an essentially harmless creature can evoke such hatred and irresponsibility as to put their own and other peoples lives in danger just to kill it. Hope you're proud of yourself who ever you are, you get my vote for this weeks

Friday F#*@wit (Sorry for pinching your tag JJJ and the Doctor).

 

There could be a bit of rain about as some of the burrowing reptiles have surfaced in the past few days as well. A mate of mine doing survey work recorded a Bandy Bandy in mangrove swamp only a few metres from the salt water last night. A new one for me at least and we are wondering what species of Blind Snakes (Bandy's primary food source) might be living in that intertidal habitat.

This large adult Verraux's Skink was another fossorial reptile that has been on the move during the hot weather.

 

 

The frogs in no particular order.

A very attractive Striped Marsh Frog one of a number seen and heard on Wednesday night.

 

 

A couple of different male Stoney Creek Frogs some of many recorded last night.

 

 

A female Stoney Creek Frog from the same location.

 

 

A small Broad-palmed Frog also from the same location.

 

 

And a very different looking Broad-palmed Frog which was camera shy and flatly refused to allow itself to be photographed out in the open.

 

 

Cheers, have a great weekend everyone.

 

Mike.



Two outa two ain't bad

Took a few days off work early last week and headed down to Lamington National Park for a bit of R & R and with the hope of seeing and photographing a couple of our skinks that inhabit this beautiful and spectacular part of South East Queensland. One of the skinks in particular the Tryon's Skink had eluded me every time I had visited the area in the past, but not this time.

It is an interesting feeling when you come across something that you have been keen to observe for a long time and finally there it is right in front of you in all its glory. The photographs are nothing special but the sense of achievement was definitely special.

 

 

Anyway starting from the beginning I left home reasonably early Sunday morning with the aim of calling into one of Brisbane's protected areas of city bushland before calling in on some good friends who had offered to look over the manuscript for the book and offer advice based on their considerable experience in Herpetology. My main aim there was to find and photograph a Tommy Round-head Dragon but I left with only a couple of shots of a fungi and an Elegant Snake-eyed Skink with nice yellow markings on its head.

 



 

Arrival at my camp site was late in the day so after setting up and cooking (read boiling some water) I headed off for a short walk on dusk. These two Southern Angle Headed Dragons were on the ground right beside the track. The darker animal ran from the track into the leaf litter and the green one immediately took after it. I have observed many colours in these dragons before but I have never seen one quite as green as this. He was obviously very excited or extremely pissed off about having the other dragon wander through his territory.

 

 

Later on the way back to camp the eye shine of this magnificent Fleay's Barred Frog caught my eye. Only the second specimen of this species of Frog that I have ever seen and the first time that I have managed to photograph the distinctive blue eye crescent.

It was already shaping up to be a pretty good trip.

 

 

This "cute" little critter was hanging around its front door waiting to invite a passing insect in for dinner.

There were a few cute "n" furries around as well.

 



 



 

A Ring-tailed Possum doing an impression of a T-Rex and and a very large Long-nosed Bandicoot. Sorry about the red eye, I don't know how to get rid of it and it's pretty much inevitable with my camera mounted flash on the point and shoot.

 

 

Next morning after heading off at 6.30 I had just under a 20km walk ahead of me. I was looking forward to catching a glimpse of my target species but after about 5k's I was starting to wonder what sort of condition I was going to be in by the time I got back. Working behind a desk and doing bugger all exercise is not good for you. It was pretty damp and there were quite a few interesting fungi around.

 

 

Finally I reached an area where the forest started to change and look more like the habitat I needed if I was to locate my target species. Then about 1.5 metres up in the fork of a tree I spotted some movement and was greeted with target species number one, A Rainforest Cool Skink (Harrisoniascincus zia). Unfortunately the glare was shocking and when I tried to move to a better position the skink disappeared and didn't return.

 

 

After walking up and back along a 2 or 3 km stretch of track a few times I was greeted by the sight of a sub adult Tryon's Skink on the edge of the track. Awesome 2 out of 2 target species and it was still morning. After a few quick shots before he disappeared I started off again and less than 20 metres along there was an adult Tryon's Skink perched on rock a few metres off the track. The light was crappy and he was a long way away but I still managed a half decent shot for the book. By this stage any thoughts of not making it back in one piece had been long forgotten and I pressed on back down into a rainforest gully.

 



 

A few K's down and well into the Sub Tropical Rainforest again this little guy was perched on a rock and disappeared as I got closer. I waited a while and he partially reappeared enough for this average shot to be taken. I will have to check with a couple of people but to me it looks like another slightly different looking Tryon's Skink. Trouble is it was in the wrong area and forest type for them and was only a short distance (approximately 30 metres) from where I began to see Murray's Skinks (see second photo below) quite regularly. The two species are very similar in a lot of respects and are classified in the same genus of Karma but they are supposed to occupy different habitats. It's probably a different looking Murray's Skink but I will advise when I find out for sure, if that is even possible from this photo.

 

 

Once at the bottom, the creek and associated waterfalls were powering with plenty of flow and creek crossings that were well under water. There were a lot of trees down as well some completely blocking the track entrances and exits making it difficult to navigate around them.

 

 

There were a few Pale-lipped Shade Skinks active around the base of the waterfalls but photography was difficult as they were all well within the splash zones of the falls and was it was next to impossible to keep the camera dry.

 

 

This little stumpy tailed dude caught and devoured quite a large emerging insect as I watched but unfortunately the photo is rubbish.

 

 

 

After the third creek crossing the rain started to come down quite heavily and i was forced to pack away the camera to keep it dry. Soon after the rain started the Pouched or Marsupial Frogs (Assa darlingtoni) began to call from the leaf litter on the forest floor. You often hear them in rainforest habitat but you NEVER see them. This is only the second one that I have ever seen. The rain was an absolute blessing bringing this guy out of hiding right in front of me.

 

 

These beautiful blue and white Lamington Spiny Crayfish were everywhere, in the water and on the tracks surrounding the creeks. Fiesty little characters.

 

 

The rest of the day was pretty quiet and it didn't take me long to start feeling sorry for myself again especially on the walk up the hill out of the gully. Ten hours or so after heading off in the morning I made it back into camp a little the worse for wear but still pretty happy with my achievements for the day.

To top off a great day a wonderful couple from Holland who were camped close to my campsite invited me over for happy hour and I was able to bore them with my stories as well as listen to some fabulous stories from their trip and also their home land. A great day all round.

 

It rained again that night for an hour or so and one of my new friends and I decided to go for another short night walk to see what the rain may have brought to life.

Another four Fleay's Barred Frogs were sighted this time on the track itself as well as a very large and stunning Southern Leaf-tailed Gecko with an original tail which was also crossing the track . I did not see a single gecko on the trees or the timber shade shelters.

That blue eye is absolutely stunning don't you think?

 

 

To finish off I have a couple of photos from later this week of three juvenile Eastern Brown Snakes all just a little different from one another. Nature is great.

It has certainly been a productive week, and I intend to head out again at the end of this month so hopefully I might have some new and possibly interesting photos and reports to blog then.

 

 

 

Thanks again for joining me.

 

Cheer,

 

Mike.

A few photographs from the past six weeks.

 I've been a bit slack with the blog and I apologise for that. Motivation to write has been low. I have been on the odd night drive and weekend bushwalk but nothing very exciting so you haven't missed much anyway. I have also joined a local frog survey group recently which is itself a good reason to get out and I have met some very nice people in the process which has been a real bonus. 

Below are a few photo's which basically sum up the extent of my interactions with nature so far in 2015. The first couple are fungi which after our substantial rain events of the past month or so is prevalent in the right locations. The first is a plain old bracket fungi and the second I have no idea of the name but I reckon it is the most spectacular fungi that I can recall seeing for a very long time. The colour was vibrant and it covered quite a large area, probably fifty centimetres in length at least. The smaller format photo really doesn't do it justice though.

                                   

The Logrunner below was busily turning over litter in search of food late in the day in a small patch of sub tropical forest not far from home.

The nest was in another patch of vine forest on private land and was a real feat of engineering and no more than a metre from the ground. The photo doesn't highlight the intricacies of the design or construction.

                                     

Some of the frogs from the past six weeks.

A large female Stoney Creek frog out and about during the day. She was hiding in the grass only a few metres from where a large Red-bellied Black Snake had been observed basking just the day before.

 

A Cane Toad viewed from a slightly different angle to normal. I can't get over the stunning eyes, shame they are introduced and such a pest.

 

A copper-backed Brood frog. A stunning little critter as well and often very difficult to locate even when calling. Shame I didn't notice the grass stem on its back.

 

The next three photos are Dusky Gungans which are also extremely difficult to locate at any time. they are also one of the most variable small frogs in terms of colour and pattern, although these were all fairly similar in appearance.

 

A Dwarf or Eastern Sedge Frog. Cute and noisy little critters. This one was competing with a couple of other males in the pot plants outside my back door.

 

A dark Giant Barred Frog. One of a number recorded on one of the frog surveys recently. Good to see them around in reasonable numbers on the coast.

 

A sub adult Scarlet-sided Pobblebonk. Another beautiful species which can be quite variable in colour and pattern.

 

The lizards have been hard to find although I have seen quite a few small skinks which have been way too fast and not keen to hang around for photos.

A Southern Angle Headed Dragon from the same patch of rainforest as the Logrunner and the fungi.

 

A couple of Murray's Skinks. There were quite a few of these out and about very late in the day and I took far too many photos of them but I'll only bore you with a couple.

 

The turtles. Some of the best shots (in terms of identification shots for the book) I have of three local species which was pretty exciting. The first is an adult Saw-shelled turtle.

 

 A Macquarie Turtle. 

 

  

And finally a Krefft's turtle. A beautiful shot in a classic pose taken from a considerable distance by my wife Deb. I wish that my hand was steady enough to get shots like this with the zoom. I could have taken the time to set up a tripod but would have missed the shot if I did.

 

Finally the snakes. Not many and not much of a variety but you can't expect too much when you don't try hard enough.

 

A carpet python around 1.2 metres in length that flatly refused to sit still for a photo.

 

Brown Tree Snake. Pretty typical specimen for the area.

 

 Red-naped Snake. Not a great shot unfortunately. I think he had been clipped by a car as his behaviour was erratic with unusual spasmodic movements.

 

A Small-eyed Snake that was cruising around on my back veranda after a long nights driving with very little result. Probably should have stayed home and gone for a walk instead.

 

And finally a stunning dark almost black sub adult Eastern Brown Snake.

Another relocation animal.
 

That's it for now. I will make a concerted effort not to leave it so long between posts in future and hopefully be back with some more photos soon.
Still really keen for some feedback from anyone if you're out there.

Thanks,

Mike.