# Mission Beach, QLD



## moloch05 (Dec 3, 2010)

Greetings,

My family and I are back from a holiday to the wet tropics of Mission Beach, QLD. Mission Beach has long been our favourite family holiday location and it was great to have all of grown kids with us again ... almost like days long ago! This trip was part of a surprise 60th for my wife.

“Wet tropics” was an appropriate term for the area this year since it rained everyday and sometimes for the entire day. Photography was difficult due to the wet conditions so I don't have as many photos as I had hoped. 

I will begin with a few habitat shots and then add arachnids and other interesting animals that I have observed on this trip. 

Mission Beach















… view of Mission Beach and offshore islands from Bicton Hill. We climb this hill once or twice each day for exercise.





Dunk Island and the family group of islands:






... view of South Mission Beach area:






Murray Falls – about 45 minutes inland from Mission Beach










This Boyd’s Forest Dragon (_Hypsilurus boydii_) was on the same tree as one that I observed in Nov 2009. They are slow moving dragons and are easy to overlook.










Black-throated Rainbow-Skink (_Carlia rostralis_) – common at Murray Falls. 






Closed-litter Rainbow-Skink (_Carlia longipes_) – common around our cabin in Mission Beach.






Red-throated Rainbow-Skink (_Carlia rubrigularis_) – these are the most abundant skink and possibly most abundant reptile here in the wet tropics. 






Northern Bar-sided Skink (_Eulamprus brachysoma_) – I think that this lizard is this species although _E. tenuis_ is a possibility.






Jungle Carpet Python (_Morelia spilota_) -- I saw two of these one wet night while night-driving for reptiles.










One night, my son and I found this large and nicely patterned Jungle Carpet Python that had just eaten. By the size, I would imagine that it had captured one of the many bandicoots of the area.










Scrub Python (_Morelia kinghorni_) 










Mission Beach is probably the easiest place in the world to see Southern Cassowary. We’ve sighted these lovely birds almost daily. Despite their size, they can disappear easily when they step off the trail.














Bush Stone-Curlew with young.





This Boyd’s Forest Dragon (_Hypsilurus boydii_) was on the same tree as one that I observed in Nov 2009. They are slow moving dragons and are easy to overlook.











Snake-headed Gudgeon – These are one of the common freshwater fish of the area. These are males in breeding colours.


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## FAY (Dec 3, 2010)

Great pics as usual. Love the jungle. Thanks for sharing.


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## byron_moses (Dec 3, 2010)

great pics mate that second jungle with the full tummy i think most people would be happy with in there collection stunning wild animal


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## Snakeluvver2 (Dec 3, 2010)

Those jungles look better than some of the line breed ones!


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## pythons73 (Dec 3, 2010)

What awesome pictures,gee those Jungles look a bit like Port Macs,how big was the scrubby...What a truely amazing place...The Boyds are really reddish..or are they like Water dragons were the male has red on its underbelly-chin..


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## Flaviruthless (Dec 3, 2010)

Takes me back! We used to live in that glorious part of the world. Fantastic photos by the way.


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## moloch05 (Dec 5, 2010)

Thanks, everyone, for the kind remarks.

Pythons73,
The Boyd's are not red below like the male waterdragons. It was dark in the forest and I had to shoot in manual mode. Photos like this are end up a little too saturated so that the dragon appears to be redder than in life under natural lighting.




Here are wings from a Ulysses Swallowtail. These really are the Aussie equivalents to the neotropical Morphos.






Cairn's Birdwing (_Ornithoptera euphorion_) -- our largest butterfly and one of the most spectacular. This is a female. 
Males are a glistening emerald green and gold. To me, these are the "birds-of-paradise" of the butterfly world and like the BOPs, they are mostly found in New Guinea.






Fuscous Swallowtail (_Papilio fuscous_) and Pale Green Triangle (_Graphium eurpylus_), another Papilionidae









Hamadryad (_Tellervo zoilus_)










Yellow-eyed Plane (_Neptis praslini_) -- look much like Hamadryads but their flight is very different and they usually land upright on leaves.






Common Eggfly (_Hypolimnus bolina_)









Red Lacewing (_Cethosia cydippe_)









Australian Rustic (_Cupha prosope_)









Chocolate Argus (_Junonia hedonia_)
















Purple Crow





Ciliate Blue (_Anthene lycaenoides_) and Cycad Blue (_Theclinesthes onycha_)








Green-banded Line Blue (_Nacaduba cyanea_)

















Large Banded Blue (_Danis danis_) -- these are really beautiful. Unfortunately, I only saw two and could not get close to them. This one was perched about 3m above the trail.






Small Banded Blue(_Psychonotis caelius_) -- much like the Large Banded Blue but smaller. For some reason, this pattern is present in a number of genera of blues in the wet tropics of Australia.






Shining Oakblue













Black-spotted Flash (_Hypolycaena phorbus_)













Orange-streaked Ringlet (_Hypocysta irius_)









Orange Ringlet (_Hypocysta adiante_)









Orange Bush Brown









Evening Brown







Northern Sword-grass Brown (_Tisiphone helena_)










Broad-banded Awl (_Hasora hurama_) and skipper









Orange Grass-dart (_Ocybadistes ardea_) and Lyell's Swift (_Pelopidas lyelli_)









Banded Demon


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## kupper (Dec 5, 2010)

that gudgeon is insane


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## Widdup (Dec 5, 2010)

When i went there i saw everything in the photos bar the snakes!


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## thals (Dec 5, 2010)

Awesome pics! Beautiful photos, would love to explore the Mission Beach area someday!


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## borntobnude (Dec 12, 2010)

More great photos , if you had let me know i would of got you to take some decent pics of my mothers new house and you could of sat in her backyard and taken most of these ( apart from murray upper ).the cassawaries travel her creek daily atm and a group of large eels also ,she has the snakes too but cant eem to talk about them  . no bugs? i hear lots of complaining about them !!
thanks


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## RiBeag (Dec 12, 2010)

I used to run the horse riding on dunk. Moving back that way next year! Wicked pictures mate! Made me miss it


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## richoman_3 (Dec 12, 2010)

never get tired of looking at your threads  well done as always 
i love that jungle and that gudgeon is amazing !


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## cadwallader (Dec 12, 2010)

Great photos mate i'm going up there in February hope i have the same success as you.
love the butterfly


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## gecko-mad (Dec 12, 2010)

Awesome shots mate! Love the butterflies.


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## moloch05 (Dec 14, 2010)

Thanks, everyone, for the feedback. There are some really fresh water fish up that way. I would like to get an underwater camera and try for some of the rainbowfish and gudgeons in particular.

Rodney,
We did not find the insects to be too much of a problem on this trip. Leeches were out in good numbers so we had to remove these after every walk. It would be nice to see Cassowaries in the backyard!

Regards,
David


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## borntobnude (Dec 14, 2010)

mum arrives in sydney tomorrow i will take some delight showing her what else lives in her backyard


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## whiteyluvsrum (Dec 14, 2010)

very nice photos, cheers!


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