Frogging with K-ris
Last night, Alecia and I went frogging with K-ris at one of his sites at the northern end of the D’Aguilar Range.
We saw lots of things besides frogs, and I’m totally in awe of how easy it can be to work on frogs (compared with, for example, snakes). Frogs occur in quite high densities (we caught and processed about 30 in around 5 hours), the frogs call to let you know where they are, when you see them they tend to just sit there until you grab them, and you don’t die when they bite you!
The study site
The study site
A frog print
A Litoria wilcoxi
A Litoria wilcoxi. She doesn’t know what’s about to happen…
… Gotcha!
Bagged and ready for processing
They can hop quite far, even while in the plastic bag
The males can be a striking yellow colour during the breeding season
This Litoria pearsoniana lives in the drain that goes under the road
Another Litoria pearsoniana
The same Litoria pearsoniana, different angle
Yet another Litoria pearsoniana
An Adelotus brevis egg mass. I could hear the frog calling from under that overhanging rock…
…He’s in there somewhere…
Another, more visible, Adelotus brevis
Adelotus brevis have very bright markings
After processing, we released him
A flower
A rough-scaled snake making a getaway. He was in the same spot for most of the night, but I didn’t manage to get any photos
We went to investigate some large splashing noises, and found a platypus
We watched him for about 20 minutes in a small rock pool. I think there were two platypods in pools separated by about 50 metres of rocky creek bed.
A millipede
A moth
A dragonfly nymph (I think)
A snail
Everyone’s favourite invertebrate, a yabby
There were lots of spiders
Including some trapdoor spiders
They sit at the entrances of their burrows in the banks…
…but they don’t like flashes
A water spider
October 5th, 2006 at 2:30 pm
hello
October 5th, 2006 at 2:47 pm
Hello Shamus. How are you?
October 6th, 2006 at 8:30 am
awesome photos stewbie!
nice platypus! that’s a once in a lifetime find!
well done old chum
^_^
October 6th, 2006 at 9:17 am
nice photos!
i’ve tried taking photos of platypus… dead set near impossible! you’ve got skill, stewart.
October 8th, 2006 at 8:43 am
Did you know that the primary school teachers decided, without asking the english teachers, to abandon the plural
“platypii”
in favour of
“platypusses”
Same fate for octopii.
I have to say I don’t think platypii are really as hard to find and photograph as everyone makes out, but I grew up on a river where we had one that bow rode our canoe like dolphins do.
I had to say word up for the millipede. My favourite invert.
September 5th, 2007 at 1:23 am
hey there
nice Litoria pearsoniana i often find these in the gold coast hinterland aswell as the adelotus brevis im not a frog person but those 2 and litoria brevipalmata are all pretty special. i have also encountered assa darlingtoni recently which was a suprise for everyone