# Xmas 2009 high country herping.



## reptilerob (Jan 3, 2010)

My wife rett82 and I spent over a week up in the high country over the xmas/new year break, and only arrived home late last night.
I wont go into any deep details because it would take me forever, but lets just say that before the torrential rain arrived on new years eve and waterlogged everything, we had a fantastic time herping and trout fishing, and in no particular order at all, here are some of the reptiles we found,

Cunninghams skink.






Jacky dragon.





jacky dragon.





A couple of Cunninghams skinks. Im not sure whether its a husband/wife, or father son type pair. I had to crop this image heavily, because i knew if i tried to walk up closer, i would spook them easily with 2 sets of eyes watching me!!





Not sure what this one is, but i found it very high up in the high country behind falls creek on a rock in the middle of a creek. There were two of them there.





This is the other high country skink. If anybody can identify it, feel free.





Another Cunninghams. These things are sooooo awesome!!!





Cunninghams Skink.





A very shy highland copperhead. Could'nt get a photo of its head properly because it took off and buried its head in some blackberry bushes before completely dissappearing!!





The same high country copperhead. Its easy to see why they call the a high country copperhead, this was found at an altitude close to 1300 meters above sea level at a temperature of around 18 degrees.





A blotched bluetongue. We usually see a lot of these, but this time we only found two. The first one was a rich golden colour, but ran away quickly before either of us got a photo, and this one, found about 5 minutes later was a really flat dull colour!!





A waterskink.





Another water skink.





This was cool, we were standing there, dead still in knee deep grass surrounded by rocks, waiting for lizards to pop up, when my wife heard a rustleing noise near a rock about 3 feet away, so we looked down, and there was a large eastern brown snake right infront of us just hunting for food by ducking in and out of the rocks infront of us.





It dissappeared and we had no idea where it went, so here is Rett82 waiting patiently for the snake to surface again.....unfortunately it never did!! It was somewhere in those smaller rocks at the bottom, just infront of her.





Jacky dragon.





Check out the patterns of a Cunninghams Skink from behind!!






Here it is, our favourite herping spot. We have seen eastern brown snakes, cunninghams skinks, jacky dragons and blotched bluetongues here, as well as caught some lovely trout in the river right beside this spot.








If anybody recognises this place, please done try and bignote yourself by blurting it out in here.

After all of the rain (between 150 and 200mm) we went herping and didnt see anything other than a million waterfalls, a couple of small skinks and this strange looking moth. Check it out, its snow white and looks like it has furry legs!!!LOL It even has white eyes and 2 long brown tenticles or something laying backwards behind its head. (sorry about the poor description, i know nothing about moths)


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## TahneeMaree (Jan 3, 2010)

Naww, cute jackies and water skinks!


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## dansocks (Jan 4, 2010)

great pics well done!


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## Gecko75 (Jan 4, 2010)

very nice pictures, looks like a beautiful place to go. your skinks are water skinks, (eulamprus sp) not sure which one probably southern water skinks though.


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## Jdsixtyone (Jan 4, 2010)

Love the Jacky!!


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## reptilerob (Jan 4, 2010)

Thanks for the kind comments everyone, im glad you enjoyed them. Rett82 has some awesome photos of a cunninghams skink.


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## Poggle (Jan 4, 2010)

great shots guys


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## Jay84 (Jan 4, 2010)

Well done on some great pics. Thanks for sharing Rob.......... no Rosenbergs? hahaha


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## rett82 (Jan 6, 2010)

Here are a couple of photos i took of a Cunninghams Skink on the trip.


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## Nephrurus (Jan 6, 2010)

Great thread. I love the cunninghams skinks. You were lucky to see the brown snake. I haven't seen many this summer.

And all those water skinks. Eulamprus something (obviously), but they could be any of a number of species. I'm sure one of the more knowledgable members will give an informed ID. Oh, and when they do, could they explain their reasoning as to why each animal is that species?


-H


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## sammy09 (Jan 6, 2010)

*beardies*

do you need any lighting/heating for beardies in out-doar avairies:|


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## nicman72 (Jan 6, 2010)

They're awesome pics guys - thanks for sharing! Rett, that 1st one of the CS is a cracker.


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## $NaKe PiMp (Jan 7, 2010)

wow i would love to see the highland country and go herping there,i love the copperheads next time dont let them get away!!!!
no tigers?? i thought you wouldhave seen one of them before you would come across an eastern brown ,speaking of browns i have found heaps this season, there my fav species to go herping for


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