# A few recent reptile pictures part 1 of 2. Arid South Eastern Lizards.



## GeckPhotographer (Dec 29, 2012)

So a little while ago I finished all my Uni exams for the year and my mother decided this meant we should visit the family in Adelaide. Since I'm such a keen herper I convinced her the best way to do this would be to drive from Newcastle to Broken Hill, and then down from there to Adelaide. This plan of course involving stopping all along the way to find reptiles. She agreed and invited a couple friends who like her enjoy plants more than animals to accompany us to Broken Hill and stay there for a few nights. 

So one afternoon we packed up the car, and headed west. On the way out of Newcastle we saw a few reptiles Eastern Bearded Dragons, Common Bluetongues, and Lace Monitors, while I'm chasing better pictures of all I was more keen to head west and try and find some species I hadn't seen before. We didn't see anything else of much interest on the road between there and Cobar and arrived at a rest stop just outside Cobar where we had planned to meet up with our friends by 9pm. My mother wasn't too keen to road cruise so instead I set about looking for geckos. Like most roadside pullovers on main highways that get far to many people staying and destroying every bit of habitat they possibly can and polluting the nearby environment this patch was excellent for geckos. 
Species here: 
Lucasium steindachneri - Box Patterned Gecko
Diplodactylus vittatus - Eastern Stone Gecko 
Strophurus intermedius - Southern Spiny-tailed Gecko
Rhynchoedura ormsbyi - Eastern Beaked Gecko
Gehyra variegata - Variegated Dtellla
Gehyra dubia - Dubious Tree Dtella
Heteronotia binoei - Bynoe's Gecko





Strophurus intermedius by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr



Strophurus intermedius by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr



Strophurus intermedius by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr



Strophurus intermedius by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr



Rhynchoedura ormsbyi by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr



Rhynchoedura ormsbyi by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr



Diplodactylus vittatus by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr



Diplodactylus vittatus by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr
I called it a night after a few hours of poking around and photographing keen to hit the early road and find some snakes. 

The early road on the other hand had different thoughts, yielding a big fat total of one DOR Sand Monitor. We continued driving to Broken Hill which we reached by about mid day (after driving a few back roads between as well), and headed for the tourist information place to get some maps and stuff. 

We headed out to a small place out of Broken Hill to find a couple interesting reptiles we'd told would be there. On the way we saw several Central Bearded Dragons (the most common lizard of the trip by far, yet I got 0 photos), and a Central Netted Dragon. Out at the site it took us all of a couple minutes to find the target Gidgee Skinks and all of 10 minutes for me to take the worlds most horrible rushed pictures of them that have ever been taken, before a medical reason caused us to head back to Broken Hill and stay there for the night instead of out in the bush. 





Egernia stokesii by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr



Egernia stokesii by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr

The next day we headed out to the camping site we would stay at for the next two nights. I took some pictures of one of my favourite dragon species on the way out. 




Tympanocryptis tetraporophora by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr



Tympanocryptis tetraporophora by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr



Tympanocryptis tetraporophora by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr



Tympanocryptis tetraporophora by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr

We continued on and arrived out our camp site in the heat of the day. A big Roo had the right idea napping in the shad, and after setting up some shad of our own we quickly joined it. That afternoon we went for a walk looking for plants and reptiles. We found a couple of Central Netted Dragons, Boulengers Skinks and a dead (and very desiccated) Blindsnake. After waiting for sunset the geckoing began and we were able to track down the two main target species in a couple of minutes.

Beaded Geckos were a new and rather pretty species for me, I was pretty happy to track them down so easily.



Lucasium damaeum by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr



Lucasium damaeum by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr 

Gibber Geckos have been high on my list for a while now and after finally finding them out here it was for good reason. Between there awesome appearance and personality these have made it to be one of my absolute favourite gecko species.



Lucasium byrnei by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr



Lucasium byrnei by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr



Lucasium byrnei by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr



Lucasium byrnei by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr



Lucasium byrnei by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr






As well as these the area had a number of species of gecko that I had seen several times before.

Box Patterned Geckos were literally erupting from the place, we must have seen hundreds over the two nights there.



Lucasium steindachneri by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr



Lucasium steindachneri by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr



Northern Spiny-tails are pretty geckos in the northern extent of their range, but here take on a more drab grey colour with little patterning, nevertheless their size and pretty eyes make them an impressive gecko.



Strophurus ciliaris by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr



Strophurus ciliaris by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr 
I have now realised this was probably a new species for me, but at the time didn’t attempt to key it out. It is most likely R.angusta a species of beaked gecko similar to posted earlier in the thread. 



Rhynchoedura sp. by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr



Rhynchoedura sp. by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr

Seen but not photographed were many Gehyra lazelli, Gehyra variegata, Heteronotia bynoei. 

The next 2 days were spent mostly resting from the mid day heat. In the cooler parts of the day we managed to find a few of the reptiles that are active in the area. 

These are little skinks with lots of attitude. 



Cryptoblepharus australis by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr



Cryptoblepharus australis by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr






Cryptoblepharus australis by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr

These rock living Dragons are pretty cool for a New South Welshman as they only occur in a very few spots around this area, they are however very common in SA. 
Female:



Ctenophorus decresii by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr
Male:



Ctenophorus decresii by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr



Ctenophorus decresii by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr



Ctenophorus decresii by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr
Juvenile:



Ctenophorus decresii by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr





These skinks are generally fairly common but hard to photograph due to speed, surprisingly this was the only one I even glimpsed and I managed to get photos.



Ctenotus regius by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr



Ctenotus regius by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr



Ctenotus regius by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr



We spent the next night geckoing the same as the night before but with no new species. (This is why I have photos of the species I'd seen lots before.  ) 

The next day it was time to pack up, say goodbye to our plant loving friends and continue toward Adelaide. Driving from the campsite back to Broken Hill we saw our second snake of the trip a DOR Mengdens Brown Snake. Out the other side of Broken Hill it didn't take long before we were across the SA border, here it was important to keep a close lookout for dragons on the road. Among the numerous Bearded Dragons, Central Netteds and Eyrean Earless Dragons I was very keen to see a Lined Earless Dragon. After hours of spotting only the more common dragons a car overtook us at ~140 and proceeded to drive over a lizard I'd spotted ahead of us, stopping to check it out, it was indeed the very dragon I'd been hoping to see alive. Very annoyed I got back in the car to continue to Adelaide, possibly saying something about a missile launcher...... this was the only one of those dragons we saw. 

We didn't reach Adelaide that day, opting to instead camp in a bush area someway on the way to it. Here we did a bit of general herping and I photographed a couple of things. One of them a gecko I was very excited to see. 
Shinglebacks were very common. These are very nice looking big lizards.



Tiliqua rugosa by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr



Tiliqua rugosa by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr

Small Menetia skinks were to be found in the leaf litter. 



Menetia greyii by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr

We found one Nobby Dragon, all I could think was just how amazingly different these look to the Northern races of the species. 



Diporiphora nobbi by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr



Diporiphora nobbi by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr

And the Ranges Stone Gecko was a very new an exciting gecko for me. These guys took a lot of hard looking to find here, and unfortunately I don't like my pics much. I guess I'll have to go back. 



Diplodactylus furcosus by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr'

Much more common here were the Southern Rock Dtellas (all on trees) which look very different to the north NSW ones. 



Gehyra lazelli by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr



Gehyra lazelli by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr

And Bynoe's Geckos which were around any fallen timber or buildings. 



Heteronotia binoei by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr



Heteronotia binoei by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr









The next day we headed on to Adelaide where we stayed with family for a week and a bit. Most of the time here wasn't herping but I did some poking around: 

Bougainville's Skink



Lerista bougainvillii by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr



Lerista bougainvillii by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr



I'd seen H.decresiensis over here before but had photographed it only in the east where it is now H.talbingoensis. 



Hemiergis decresiensis by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr



Hemiergis decresiensis by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr

Eastern Ctenotus



Ctenotus orientalis by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr



Finding this when my grandma asked us to pull over for her car sickness was the highlight of Adelaide. I've wanted to see an Aprasia for a long time and getting one finally was very awesome. This guy could easily curl onto a 5c coin despite being 13cm in length!



Aprasia striolata by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr



Aprasia striolata by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr



Aprasia striolata by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr



Aprasia striolata by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr




After enjoying catching up with relatives in Adelaide we decided to head home via the Victorian Mallee and see what we could find. Arriving there it was 5c, blowing a gale and occasionally raining, not reptile weather at all. 
Despite the poor conditions searching yielded a few things. 

Boulenger's Skink



Morethia boulengeri by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr



Morethia boulengeri by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr


This Burton's was so nondescript it deserved to be photographed for its effort at being so uninteresting.  



Lialis burtonis by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr
Still looked rocking in spinifex though.



Lialis burtonis by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr

Another spinifex inhabitant.



Julodimorpha bakewelli by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr

And a small fast, Mallee Military Dragon. This was the only one we found due to weather. 



Ctenophorus fordii by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr'



Ctenophorus fordii by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr

That night was freezing, I put in a token effort to find geckos only to be surprised that quite a few (number wise) were around.

I took another picture of a Beaded Gecko 



Lucasium damaeum by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr

and a couple more of a Southern Spiny-tailed, before heading to bed.



Strophurus intermedius by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr



Strophurus intermedius by Stephen Mahony, on Flickr

We needed to be home the next day so we got up early and drove all day seeing only a Sand Monitor and a few Bearded Dragons on the road as we went home. Arriving home at midnight (precisely) we crashed into bed, happy at the large amount of reptiles we'd been able to see despite the small effort we'd put in. 

I hope you enjoyed the thread and pictures.


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## Stuart (Dec 29, 2012)

Stephen, believe me when I say you take some incredible photographs. You have a talent and I'm grateful you take the time out to share it with us.


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## Chanzey (Dec 29, 2012)

Great photos again  Love those living rock dragons


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## Rob (Dec 29, 2012)

Quality thread and pics, as per usual. Thanks so much for sharing.


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## Venomous_RBB (Dec 29, 2012)

They look awesome Stephen 
Some great lizards there, Tawny dragon's they are one of my favourite lizards. The Earless dragon is awesome, such a great colour on it.
You have gotten me into Gecko's, I have never liked Gecko's much, used to live in QLD and you would hear them all the time, were basically pests and grew up with my family not liking them either but I am really liking some of the Gecko's that you post, especially the Box-patterned and the spiny tails.


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