# Herping out Shire way: A short, illustrated story.



## Nephrurus (Oct 10, 2007)

Last saturday night I did the exact opposite of normal folk, I headed away from population centres and went herping. I'd been planning to do this for a few days, and although the day started well (hot and fairly humid) it suddenly got cold as a cool change moved through. Due to the cool temps, we weren't holding out much hope for many herps, so we took spotlights with us to try for some mammals. 
Fear gripped me when we got out of the car.... my breath condensed in the air... not a great sign if you want to find herps. it was at this point my ears pricked up and a wave of relief hit me. The sound of frogcall filled the air. _Litoria verreauxii, Limnodynastes peroni _ and _Crinia signifera _ we calling from a nearby dam on private property. 

From that point on it was clear that tonight belonged to the Amphibians. 

The first frog we turned up was the fairly common _Litoria peroni_ or perons tree frog. Looks fairly similar to _Litoria tyleri_ but calls differ. This one was stone cold, sitting in the middle of the track. 











as we neared a rocky stream bed, we could hear _Psuedophryne australis _, the red crowned froglet calling from nearby heath next to a drainage line. It was too thick and destructive to go after an endangered species, so we continued on out way. 

Upon reaching the creeck bed, we spotted several frogs sitting on flat rocks in the middle of the stream... They turned out to be Lesueurs frogs _Litoria lesueurii_. These were all males, clearly in bright yellow breeding colour. 










Calling from just near the Lesueurs frogs was another impressive species. The unmistakable "plonk" of a banjo frog _ Limnodynastes dumerilii_gave away an adult males position. They call from the very edge of the bank, often from underneath vegetation or an undercut stream bank. 





Calling in the same area was a newly descibed species. _Litoria nudidigita[/I is almost identical to Litoria phyllochroa in every way, differing only by the call. We found more of this species furthur downstream on fallen logs over water. 











Arguably one of the most spectacular frog species in the Sydney region, the Blue Mountains Tree Frog Litoria citropawas a source of alot of excitement as the two herpers with me had never seen them before. We found quite a few, and several males were calling (if you haven't heard their call, track down a recording, it's awesome). Here are a few pics (they are my favourite, so i'm posting four pics instead of two). 





















Note the bright pink-orange leg markings, fairly unique amongst the tree frogs. 


Oh, and we also found a leaf tail gecko Phyllurus platurus.






If there were any major errors, please correct me! No, I'm not telling you where i went...
Don't steal my photos either! 


All the best, 

-H_


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## swingonthespiral (Oct 10, 2007)

Gorgeous photos!!! and some great information there....

Looks like you had a good night...

Thanks for sharing.


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## Australis (Oct 10, 2007)

Nice lot you found..




Must of come close to running out of click-clacks


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## iceman (Oct 10, 2007)

nice looking leaf-tail, i'll get some one day an great pic's too


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## JasonL (Oct 10, 2007)

Shire Way!!! Ya Donkey! should have given me a call??


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## JasonL (Oct 10, 2007)

and I would have had time to organise a posse to kick you out with our hairy feet.....


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## Nephrurus (Oct 10, 2007)

Yeah I know Jason... one of my herping companions is of middle eastern descent.... I'm surprised that you cunning shirelings didn't pick up his scent and hunt us down... I guess we got away...... this time.......


-H


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## RevDaniel (Oct 10, 2007)

Although frogs are very unfamiliar to me i still admire them from afar. Very nice finds along with great photos. Love the geckoe


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## JasonL (Oct 10, 2007)

Saturday nights we are all down at Northies.


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## JasonL (Oct 10, 2007)

and I have sneaking suspicions you only drove through the shire, out the other side. so my spotters tell me


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## falconboy (Oct 10, 2007)

JasonL said:


> Shire Way!!! Ya Donkey! should have given me a call??



We should stalk him and follow him next time. 

Its quite amazing how easy it is to find frogs locally - I took a not even 10min walk into the bush looking for good bark and came across storm water run off with frogs going nuts. Unfortunately I have a dodgy knee so didn't explore any more, plus it looked like rain. :shock:

Can't wait to plan a trip sometime.


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## CodeRed (Oct 10, 2007)

Nice find and top photos H


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## junglemad (Oct 10, 2007)

nice pics neph


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## markars (Oct 10, 2007)

i am suprised we didn't pick them up at the gates-have to have a word with the sentries. if ever u need some local knowledge p.m. me


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## falconboy (Oct 10, 2007)

Nephrurus said:


> Yeah I know Jason... one of my herping companions is of middle eastern descent.... I'm surprised that you cunning shirelings didn't pick up his scent



I know you didn't mean that the way it sounded, but I still can't believe you said that!! LOL :lol::lol::lol:


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## JasonL (Oct 12, 2007)

Well I went way out of the Shire to find these last night (thursday).


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## JasonL (Oct 12, 2007)

we did find a couple of non froggy herps


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## JasonL (Oct 12, 2007)

hard to take a bad photo of Blue Moutains Tree Frogs, the Heath Monitor was found in the Shire, yesterday morning, on my morning herp.


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## dickyknee (Oct 12, 2007)

Nice pics guys , 

going to be travelling through the shire tonight that ok with you guys ?? :lol::lol:


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## JasonL (Oct 12, 2007)

I'll leave your name at the gate


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## falconboy (Oct 12, 2007)

dickyknee said:


> Nice pics guys ,
> 
> going to be travelling through the shire tonight that ok with you guys ?? :lol::lol:



You need to know the password. :lol:


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## pugsly (Oct 15, 2007)

Great pics Jason.

That one in the water is spectacular, great shot.

Def have to gert out there with ya early one morning on my way to work!


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## JasonL (Oct 15, 2007)

Went again tonight but not as good as in the rain, still a few things around though like these Litoria verreauxii


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## Renagade (Oct 15, 2007)

cool shots.


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## pugsly (Oct 15, 2007)

Cool mate, thought there would be a bit around tonight too..


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## channi (Oct 16, 2007)

Thanks for sharing they are really awesome


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## shiregirl (Oct 17, 2007)

I know it's sort of off topic but it did say herping out the shire way!!
Anyway i was going to ask did anyone around the shire (sutherland) hear about a green iguana found wandering the streets???  (no it wasn't ours lol)


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## JasonL (Oct 17, 2007)

did you find one? or loose one? or was it a friends


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## shiregirl (Oct 17, 2007)

JasonL said:


> did you find one? or loose one? or was it a friends


 

No!!! 
It was actually the vet at Heathcote that told us!!


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## hugsta (Oct 17, 2007)

How's Bilbo and Froddo going nephrurus, or idn't you have time to catch up with the in the shire......???


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## GSXR_Boy (Oct 17, 2007)

shiregirl said:


> I know it's sort of off topic but it did say herping out the shire way!!
> Anyway i was going to ask did anyone around the shire (sutherland) hear about a green iguana found wandering the streets???  (no it wasn't ours lol)


 
Yes. i heard that one!!
And a story about a pig nosed turtle!


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## mattmc (Oct 17, 2007)

nice photos. mwahahaha i know where you went. to the shire. didnt happen to see frodo or sam. i wouldnt mind getting their autograph. hahaha


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## mattmc (Oct 17, 2007)

jason how big was the EWD you saw. looks like a nice specimen


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## gorf girl (Oct 20, 2007)

Loved the pictures. Dad took the kids frogging last night and it was great. We saw 5 different species of frogs, an eel, some yabbies and kangaroos on the road on the way home back to the shire. It was great. Thanks daddy J. Dad said I could bring a friend next time.


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## Wild~Touch (Oct 20, 2007)

Gorgeous froggy pics  thanks


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