# Trip to "Gippy"



## garycahill (Jan 5, 2010)

Just after Christmas, I took a trip to Gippy with a mate to see what we could find.
After a lot of walking, spotlighting, tin flipping, etc, we came up with a couple of Water Dragons & a Lacey that actually found us. 
The whole area was crawling with common water skinks, must have seen about 10,000 of them. 
Here are a couple of pics of where we were staying & the area we were looking in.


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## garycahill (Jan 5, 2010)

A few pics of a male Gipsland Water Dragon we found on top of the sunlit mountain on the river in the first post. 
Note his yellow chest, as there have been threads about this earlier.


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## garycahill (Jan 5, 2010)

Pics of the Lacey that came to visit the campsite.
Also happy camper that got a bit too much courage up after seeing us getting up close to it with our cameras. 
He dissappeared as quickly as he appeared after a tail flick!


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## Snake Catcher Victoria (Jan 5, 2010)

Nice Gary,
That spot looks very familiar to me.
Cheers


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## garycahill (Jan 5, 2010)

After a bit of a chase through the bush, we managed these pics of him.


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## garycahill (Jan 5, 2010)

As it worked out he showed up again the next morning for breakfast.
So we made room & he joined in with us!


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## kupper (Jan 5, 2010)

he is a nice one gary


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## garycahill (Jan 5, 2010)

He measured roughly 6 feet long, snout to tail tip.
I forgot my tape measure, so it's an estimation.


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## GeckoJosh (Jan 5, 2010)

Nice one Gaz
But where are all the ultra cool skink pics?


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## garycahill (Jan 5, 2010)

LOL!
How fast do you think I am with the camera?
They all turned out as a blur.
I gave up on trying to get pics of them as a bad joke.
I think everyone has already seen my "expertise" with a camera.
I will just stick to large, slow moving objects for the moment!


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## Adsell (Jan 5, 2010)

Gday Gary, Most females from that way have yellow patches on the throat. The males are normally a rich orange colour.
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## garycahill (Jan 5, 2010)

I hate to dissapoint you, but I have a male with a yellow throat from that area (Leagally on licence)
I know he is a definate male as I only have two Gippies & the other one is currently gravid.
I have included a pic of him. The only difference that I can see is that the wild one we pictured is younger.
Cheers, Gary


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## junglepython2 (Jan 6, 2010)

garycahill said:


> I hate to dissapoint you, but I have a male with a yellow throat from that area (Leagally on licence)
> I know he is a definate male as I only have two Gippies & the other one is currently gravid.
> I have included a pic of him. The only difference that I can see is that the wild one we pictured is younger.
> Cheers, Gary


 
Females will often lay without the presence of a male, infertile eggs of course.


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## redbellybite (Jan 6, 2010)

garycahill said:


> Pics of the Lacey that came to visit the campsite.
> Also happy camper that got a bit too much courage up after seeing us getting up close to it with our cameras.
> He dissappeared as quickly as he appeared after a tail flick!


 
Your lucky it didnt cop a tail flick to your head ....(I have had a tail whip to the back of my foot OUCHIES ...):lol::lol: nice pics


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## Adsell (Jan 6, 2010)

I was not saying that was not a male. I said that most females have a yellow throat from that area, so you can not use just the throat colour as a distinguishing feature. If you look closely at males, the colour on the throat will form rough stripes running from the front of the jaw back. Males also have a crest of spines on the neck that is absent ( i should say greatly reduced) in females.

Female - note the yellow on the throat. Some have more or less






Male





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## moloch05 (Jan 6, 2010)

It is nice to see pics of those Gippsland form of the water dragons. They are great looking lizards.

Interesting to see how tame Lace Monitors can become.

Regards,
David


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## richardsc (Jan 6, 2010)

we used to camp up in gippsland but the gippys were green phaseds,not blue,i havnt seen green phased gippys in years,i think they look nicer than the blue,but they are all good,should have some nice blue phaseds hatching shortly,nice shots gary,gotta love those camp raiding lacies


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## snakecharma (Jan 6, 2010)

ahhhhhh glad you enjoyed my area the most beautiful part of Victoria hands down. 

Is that the Mitchel River or is it around the lake Tyers area?? So many of these parts look like that. But yes very true we get some beautiful blue phase and Green phase water dragons around here, now this is just my own observations but i seem to find more of the Greens around the areas were salt water is more prevelent


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## garycahill (Jan 6, 2010)

junglepython2 said:


> Females will often lay without the presence of a male, infertile eggs of course.


 
They all hatch every year!
The female doesn't have any yellow & the male does.
Quite easy to tell which one is which when she is gravid! lol


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## serpenttongue (Jan 6, 2010)

I love Gippsland lacies!


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## sammy09 (Jan 6, 2010)

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


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