# Newhaven (better late than never)



## wread17 (Jul 2, 2018)

Time for the second instalment of an AWC survey.
This time I was out at Newhaven which is approximately 5 hours drive north-west of Alice, on the edge of the Tanami and pretty much in the middle of nowhere. This post is going to be exceptionally long because I have many images I'd like to share and from my own experience I like reading long posts and if you don't, well you can just browse the images.
The survey went for pretty much all of March and I can say truthfully it's the best thing I've ever done, we saw ridiculous numbers of animals (68 bird species, 58 reptile species and 13 mammal species) and it was all done against the backdrop of red sand and quartzite ranges. Some of the following images only show animals in hand as they did not cooperate upon release. Unfortunately in many cases time was of the essence and photography of secondary importance

Anyway here goes. By the way if you do notice my custom crops, it's just my preference as it better frames the animal imo.

Starting off with Dragons, this is a large male Long-nosed Dragon (Gowidon longirostris) which set himself up at a compost bin to feast on the flies. Unfortunately for a wondering Magpie-Lark, he didn't take kindly to others sharing his meal. Shame I didn't get a better shot of his lunge, was very unexpected haha.










I saw two Thorny Devils whilst out there, in fact the first one I found can actually briefly be seen on a Landline episode featuring AWC's work at Newhaven. Both were seen square in the middle of roads but only the first was posing nicely with tail held high in the high. Naturally I didn't have my camera around for him. By far my favourite reptile species and something I'm really looking forward to finding again for more photos.













Central Military Dragons (Ctenophorus isolepis) were reasonably common and incredibly quick. First image male, second female.









Central Netted Dragons (Ctenophorus nuchalis) were also common but I took no photos worth sharing.

Dwarf Beardies (Pogona minor) were caught a couple of times and to my eye looked very similar to small, grey Central beardies.





The only other dragon species caught during the survey was an unknown Diporiphora. Initially marked down as winneckei, upon closer examination of one specimen it was found to display characteristics of other Diporiphora species as well. A new paper to be published will apparently establish several new species in the area so all Diporiphora individuals were marked down as unknown.

Moving on to Goanna's I sadly only have reasonable images of Pygmy Desert Monitors (Varanus eremius). Other species seen during the survey include Perentie's, Sandies, Tristis, Gillens and Brevicauda, (I missed out on the last two species, brevi's would have been awesome). Luckily though, Pygmy Desert Monitors are extremely cute. This image is of the last one my team caught on the last day of trapping, all others vanished immediately into the spinifex upon release, the little ****s.





Skinks of all kinds were very common, with Ctenotus species variation being slightly ridiculous. Overall, the whole survey team trapped 13 different Ctenotus species, 10 of which I saw.
Ctenotus grandis, my favourite because of it's huge size and beautiful coppery colours.





Ctenotus calurus, another very pretty species although their tails weren't particularly blue.





Ctenotus piankai.





Ctenotus quattuordecimlineatus





Ctenotus pantherinus, very common but due to it's large size and unusual colouration it was always cool to trap.





Ctenotus schomburgkii.





Ctenotus leonhardii.





Ctenotus helenae, a very plain and boring species when compared to most of the other Ctenotus species.





A couple of other species of skinks starting with Carlia triacantha.





Lerista bipes, almost identical to Lerista labialis. We differentiated them on the basis of labial scales, bipes eye rested over the second labial, labialis over the third. This was often quite difficult, as these two species are tiny at usually around 5cms of thin, worm like escape artist.





And a Notoscincus ornatus, this species has very large, round eyes.





And now onto the next comment as I've filled up on photos.


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## richyboa72 (Jul 2, 2018)

Great pics , it’s cool to see groups of people doing counts of wildlife in certain places to establish the health of an area 


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## wread17 (Jul 3, 2018)

Moving onto Geckos, I’ll start with a bunch of images of Northern Spiny-Tailed Geckoes (Strophurus ciliaris). Despite their frustrating attempts to create terrible images, I found their kamikaze lunges from trees, crazy-looking eyes, and sassy walking style combined with how common they were quite endearing.





The sass walk, quite annoying when you see the eyeshine of a large gecko on the ground from a distance, only to find one of these guys moving between shrubs when you get closer.





A cute hatchling.





Day time colouration, looking like a ghost. This was a very large individual.





This one’s probably my favourite image from the trip, a big male Sand-plain Gecko (Lucasium stenodactylum) having a yawn.





A very cute Western Beaked Gecko (Rhynchoedura ornata).





Desert Fat-tailed Geckos (Diplodactylus laevis) were only trapped after a light rain shower which brought out the termites, their favourite prey. Oddly enough though, we only caught them at one of our sites, despite catching numerous individuals over several days at the one site.





And my favourite species seen, of which I saw two juveniles, the Pale Knob-tailed Gecko (Nephrurus laevissimus). This little one and the other one found whilst spotlighting were incredibly cute but would not sit still and produced average photos. Definitely another species I’m looking forward to getting the chance of photographing again.





Other interesting gecko species found by the team but not seen by me were Strophurus jeanae and Strophurus elderi. Was pretty bummed to miss the elderi but you can’t get everything.

Legless lizard wise, the three species caught were Burtons (several individuals), Delma nasuta (single) and Delma desmosa (single). Luckily enough, I was present both times on the team that caught the Delma's, although the nasuta was not keen on sticking around for decent shots.
Delma nasuta





Delma desmosa





Burton's Legless Lizard (Lialis burtonis)





Moving onto snakes, two different species of python were seen during the survey, Stimson's and a singular Woma. I missed out on seeing the Woma, which was highest on my wish list to find but considering their rarity it was bound to happen. I did however see two Stimson's Pythons (Antaresia stimsoni) and managed some average photos.





A fair variety of elapids were seen however I'll only post photos of four species. First up is a particularly well behaved Little Spotted Snake (Suta punctata) who sat without flinching whilst enduring my flash. This was a common species seen numerous times whilst spotlighting around camp and was also trapped.





This one would have to be the most beautiful snake I've ever seen, a young Banded Brown (Pseudonaja modesta) around 30cms long. When first discovered it was wrapped around a Ctenotus greeri which had the misfortune of walking into the same funnel trap. After several minutes the Ctenotus wriggled free and the snake started to actively hunt it around the trap. The skink eventually dropped it's tailed which the modesta promptly ate. At this point we pulled the snake out of the trap, the greeri was already doomed by the venom and eventually succumbed. By far the coolest predator prey interaction I've seen watched. We left the snake under a bucket whilst we processed other animals so it would be calm for photos but somehow it managed to burrow out from under the bucket and escape whilst we weren't watching. Talk about disappointing.





Another pretty Brown Snake, this time a tiny Western Brown (Pseudonaja mengdeni) around 15 cms long. I managed to see two more of this species but none sat still for a photo and this was by far the nicest one.





Finally another tiny snake, a baby Psammophis reticulata. A singular Psammophis calodera was also trapped by another team, a rare find where we were and one that I was sad to miss.





Other elapids seen were a singular King Brown and several Orange-naped Snakes (Furina ornata).

A couple of Northern Blind Snakes (Anilios diversus) were also seen but I don't have any worthwhile photos.
[doublepost=1530540927,1530540267][/doublepost]I'll post the last set of photos of non reptiles tomorrow.


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## Flaviemys purvisi (Jul 3, 2018)

Great post and images. During your time out there, did you encounter many feral cats?


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## richyboa72 (Jul 3, 2018)

Great pics, the eyes on that northern spiney tailed gecko are just so cool


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## wread17 (Jul 3, 2018)

Thanks Richy and Flaviemys. 
Feral cats were surprisingly common Flaviemys and extermination was under way inside the fenced area while we were there. From memory, they'd trapped and put down 19 cats inside the fence, 4 while we were there. There was a running bet between some of the ecologists on just how many would be caught inside the fence, with estimates up to 71. Amazes me how so many could survive when standing water was virtually non-existent. I myself saw 3 whilst spotlighting and one during the day, but none of these were inside the fenced area.


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## dragonlover1 (Jul 3, 2018)

richyboa72 said:


> Great pics, the eyes on that northern spiney tailed gecko are just so cool
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPod touch using Tapatalk


even though gecko's are not high on my list,that was my thought also


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## wread17 (Jul 3, 2018)

Thanks man, pretty much all the Stroph's have awesome eyes, almost eye of mordor in some cases.


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## richyboa72 (Jul 3, 2018)

They are just so so cool,that's for sure

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