In September 2010, I travelled down to South Australia for the Australian Society of Herpetologists‘ conference. This year it was held in Barmera, on the shores of Lake Bonney. It was a lovely location, and so popular that it was swarming. Literally.
Lots of midges at Lake Bonney, South Australia.
I’ve been to the Mary River a few times in an effort to track down the elusive Mary River turtle (Elusor macrurus). The last time I went was on December 31, 2010, in a last-ditched attempt to see some new species before the year came to a close. Of course, the recent rains and subsequent flooding in Queensland had turned the Mary River into a raging, silt-filled torrent and I reckon all the turtles had been washed out to sea.
The first time I went up there was in October 2010. The waters were calmer and the visibility was a lot better. Some of the other guys I was with got a glimpse of a Mary River turtle, but I was only able to see a southern snapping turtle (Elseya albagula) and a Krefft’s river turtle (Emydura macquarii krefftii). The snapping turtle was a reptick for me, taking my life total to 295.
Southern snapping turtle (Elseya albagula)
Krefft’s river turtle (Emydura macquarii krefftii)
Reptick:
Elseya albagula
Last week I spent a wet four days down in northern New South Wales looking for frogs. I was keeping my eyes peeled for creatures of the scaled variety, but only managed to see a carpet python. New species for me were some ground parrots (I’d previously only heard them calling), white-cheeked honeyeaters, southern emu-wrens and a green and golden bell frog.
Green and golden bell frog (Litoria aurea)
For the last two years I’ve been involved in some survey work up in the far north-western corner of Queensland. In November of this year I undertook what will probably be my final survey in the area. I didn’t get any new repticks on my last trip, so I didn’t have high hopes for this trip. But I shouldn’t have thought so highly of myself. I should have known that Mother Nature always has something up her sleeve. I ended up getting one new mammal tick (a bat, Nyctophilus daedalos) and one new reptile tick (Egernia hosmeri). We were there as the first storms of the Wet Season were rolling in, providing us with some spectacular displays of an evening.
The Wet Season rolls in.
The northern brigalow belt will always have a special place in my heart for many reasons, but mainly because it’s home to the most ornamental of snakes (Denisonia maculata). I was poking around near Moranbah recently and found a few critters. I was happy to get some decent pics of Morethia taeniopleura, and even happier to get a new reptick in the form of Ramphotyphlops unguirostris. No ornamental snakes, though, despite the promising sign at the airport.
I didn’t see any.
We made it from Camooweal to Townsville in one day, but ended up arriving in Townsville quite late. I couldn’t call on my Townsville mates at this ungodly hour, so we headed north and camped in Paluma Range National Park. We had a quick look around the campground in the morning, then headed up the range to the small township of Paluma. We wanted to see a golden bowerbird, but dipped out on it. We drove back down the range and headed south towards Mackay. There are four species of leaf-tailed geckos (Phyllurus spp.) around Mackay that I wanted to track down. Over the next two days and nights we trekked up various mountains in search of these lizards. Of the four leaf-tails around Mackay, we put in a serious effort for three and ended up finding just one.
Blue-throated rainbow-skink (Carlia rhomboidalis).
From the Central Kimberley we headed up the Great Northern Highway and back into Kununurra. We caught up with a mate overnight, then headed towards Katherine (where we caught up with another mate – it’s good having mates all over the place!). We played with a pygmy mulga snake that had been caught on a snake call-out, then headed south and across the Barkly Tablelands.
Pygmy mulga snake (Pseudechis weigeli).
Mornington Sanctuary
We headed straight from the Mitchell Plateau down to Mornington Sanctuary. Mornington is operated by the Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC) as a conservation reserve.
Typical central Kimberley habitat.
