Alecia and I went snake hunting over the weekend. We left Brisbane on Friday and headed out to Oakey. I was hoping to find some spotted black snakes, but was unsuccessful. We set up camp in Oakey, and then headed down to Oakey creek to have a poke around.

Oakey creek

Some deeply cracking mud in a dry section of Oakey creek

A pee wee nest on the banks of Oakey creek

We got some really bad chicken stuff at the local IGA, and then drove towards the Bunya Mountains. Night driving is a great way to see reptiles, but only when the weather’s on your side. The weather wasn’t on our side. It was a bit cool. But we did see some stuff.

An eastern long-necked turtle (Chelodina longicollis) spotted by eagle-eyed Alecia

A very dead Burton’s legless lizard (Lialis burtonis)

Close up of the head of the Burton’s legless lizard (Lialis burtonis)

A freshly killed red-necked wallaby (Macropus rufogriseus

That’s some very red blood

My first short-eared possum (Trichosurus caninus). The New South Wales and Queensland populations of this species used to be lumped together with the Victorian populations, but recent genetic work by Dr David Lindenmayer has shown that the two populations are in fact separate species. The Victorian population has retained the Mountain brushtail possum common name, but has been designated the scientific name of Trichosurus cunninghamii.

Short-eared possum (Trichosurus caninus). A mum and her bub.

My first live bandicoot in the wild. Probably a northern brown bandicoot (Isoodon macrourus)

A wallaby. It might be a whip tail wallaby (Macropus parryi)

We then headed down the mountain and back to our tent in Oakey. The next day we packed up while a few birds fluttered around.

A common starling (Sturnus vulgaris)?

The main reason for our trip was to go to a grassland earless dragon field day being held at Bowenville.

Grassland earless dragons (Tympanocryptis pinguicolla) are an endangered lizard found in a few isolated populations down eastern Australia.

The Queensland population seems quite happy living in very disturbed habitat like sorghum and cotton fields

We didn’t manage to find any dragons, but thankfully Rod Hobson (Queensland Parks and Wildlife ranger) had brought one along to show us

But we did manage to find a Carlia tetradactyla

These zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) were zipping around the field. The males have the bright orange cheek patches.

After we finished looking for dragons, we headed to our next stop, Dalby.

We found a dead cat along the way.

…and a galah (Cacatua roseicapilla)

Someone in Dalby has a sense of humour.

I saw my first wild red-bellied black snake in Dalby a few years ago, so I was hopeful that I’d find another one. I would have preferred a live one.

There’s a bat colony on an island in the middle of the river running through Dalby

Dead bat

Some darters? Black cormorants?

…and spoonbills.

After we’d mucked around in Dalby we headed south(ish) towards Moonie. Along the way we went by a sign for the Lake Broadwater Conservation Park. I’d never been there, so we stopped in and had a look.

Just as well we didn’t bring our boat…

…or our swimmers.

It’s a really pretty place, and I imagine it would be really spectacular when it’s got some water in there

It was getting late, so we headed down to the Moonie Crossroads motel and pitched our tent. Then we drove to Southwood National Park and cooked dinner. We had a bit of a poke around but didn’t find anything, so we headed back to the Moonie Highway and drove towards Westmar. The night was still pretty cold, so not much was about. In fact, we didn’t see any reptiles. So we headed back to the tent. The next day we headed back to Lake Broadwater. Just before we got there Alecia spotted something on the road.

My first live wild shingleback (Tiliqua rugosa aspera)

Shingleback (Tiliqua rugosa aspera) threat display. Apparently they don’t like being handled. Photo by Alecia.

A Carter original

When we got to the lake, there were heaps of eastern grey kangaroos (Macropus giganteus) around.

Eastern grey kangaroos (Macropus giganteus)

Eastern grey kangaroos (Macropus giganteus)

Eastern grey kangaroos (Macropus giganteus)

Eastern grey kangaroos (Macropus giganteus)

Eastern grey kangaroo (Macropus giganteus) making a run for it

Alecia also spotted what looks like a swamp wallaby (Wallabia bicolor)

And it spotted us

It didn’t like what it saw

The lake was teeming with birds.

Apostle bird (Struthidea cinerea)

Sulphur-crested cockatoo (Cacatua galerita)

There were lots of little corellas (Cacatua sanguinea)

Little corellas (Cacatua sanguinea) peering at me

Little corella (Cacatua sanguinea) in flight

Some galahs (Cacatua roseicapilla) coming in for landing

Grey-crowned babblers (Pomatostamos temporalis). Thanks Beth!

Scaly-breasted lorikeets (Trichoglossus chlorolepidotus) preening each other outside their nesting hollow

Unidentified raptor. Probably a whistling kite (Haliastur sphenurus)

Unidentified raptor. Probably a whistling kite (Haliastur sphenurus)

Unidentified raptor. Probably a whistling kite (Haliastur sphenurus)

Some hares

A red-necked wallaby (Macropus rufogriseus)

It’s a long drive back home

Looks like we weren’t the only people who headed out west over the weekend for a bit of nature watching.

This entry was posted on Tuesday October 17th, 2006 at 9:39 pm and is filed under Animal photos, In the field. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.