# Days 2 & 3 - Warrumbungle National Park



## smacdonald (Dec 14, 2008)

Copied directly from my blog, so excuse the weird date references. This story takes place on the 8th and 9th of November, 2008. Let me know if I've misidentified anything.

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We left Mudgee and headed towards Warrumbungle National Park. Along the way we saw an eastern long-necked turtle on the side of the road.











Eastern long-necked turtle (_Chelodina longicollis_). She was alive on the road. We moved her off (after looking at her plastron to confirm her ID).​
Eventually we arrived at the park.





Warrumbungle National Park welcomes you!​
Unfortunately it was cold, wet, cold, miserable, cold and wet. I shivered in the car while waiting for the sun to come out. 18 hours later, the sun was shining brightly. We walked up the Goulds Circuit track, stopping to have a look at a rocky outcrop.





Warrumbungle habitat​
It didn't take long before we found the first reptile of the day - a White's skink (_Egernia whitii_).





White's skink (_Egernia whitii_)​
As we poked around, we found a number of other White's skinks, which gradually got used to us and let us get close enough to photograph them.





White's skink (_Egernia whitii_)






White's skink (_Egernia whitii_)






White's skink (_Egernia whitii_)






White's skink (_Egernia whitii_)​
The rocky crevices were also home to black rock skinks (_Egernia saxatilis saxatilis_).





Black rock skink (_Egernia saxatilis_) habitat






Black rock skink (_Egernia saxatilis_)​
We saw a number of other skinks around the place, too.





_Cryptoblepharus pulcher_






Copper-tailed skink (_Ctenotus taeniolatus_)






Eastern robust skink (_Ctenotus robustus_)​
We saw a lone jacky dragon (_Amphibolurus muricatus_) head bobbing and arm waving on a rock in the distance.





Jacky dragon (_Amphibolurus muricatus_)​
As we approached him, he continued to arm wave and bob his head as he moved away from us.





Jacky dragon (_Amphibolurus muricatus_)​
We also found a little mountain heath dragon (_Rankinia diemensis_) running around and sunning himself.











Mountain heath dragon (_Rankinia diemensis_)​
As I was photographing the mountain dragon, my travelling companion called out to tell me he'd seen a lace monitor (_Varanus varius_) patrolling the outcrop.





Lace monitor (_Varanus varius_)​
This goanna was very bold for his size, and continued to ignore us as we got closer and closer to him. He was sniffing around the rocks, looking for food. He eventually found what I assume were lizard eggs, and ate a few of them while we watched.





Lace monitor (_Varanus varius_)​
After exhausting the supply of lizards on the top of the mountain, we started walking back down. Richard asked (somewhat rhetorically) "Where are all the snakes that are eating these lizards?". Exactly 2.48 seconds later, an eastern brown snake (_Pseudonaja textilis_) slithered away from the path a couple of metres in front of us. It was very fast, so this was the only photo I managed to get of it.





Eastern brown snake (_Pseudonaja textilis_)​
As we continued walking back to the car park we noticed a small _Egernia_ on a fallen tree. It looked like a tree skink (_Egernia striolata_), but it hid before we got to take a picture. We sat down and waited for him to come back out again. While waiting, I found a little eight-legged friend on my arm.





A tick on my arm​
The possible tree skink didn't show his face again. We went back the next morning to have a look, but again he dashed out of view before we got close enough to identify or photograph it.

We saw a number of eastern bearded dragons (_Pogona barbata_) sunning themselves on the roads throughout the park. This one ran up a nearby log as we got out of the car to look at him.





Eastern bearded dragon (_Pogona barbata_)






Eastern bearded dragon (_Pogona barbata_)​
At night it was still cold (did I mention the cold?) and wet. We drove along the road anyway, to see what we could see. We found some frogs, but I refused to leave the warmth of the car so all I have is this artist's impression of said amphibian:







Artist's rendering of a frog​
Eastern grey kangaroos (_Macropus giganteus_) were plentiful in the park. They were tiny little midget roos. I saw a number of small female roos (with pouch young, so they were obviously adults) that were almost the same size as juvenile roos I've seen up here around Brisbane. I reckon the cold, wet conditions (did I mention it was cold and wet?) must be stunting their growth.






Eastern grey kangaroo (_Macropus giganteus_) and emu (_Dromaius novaehollandiae_)






Eastern grey kangaroo (_Macropus giganteus_)






Emu (_Dromaius novaehollandiae_)​
Two sleepless nights of extreme cold were all we could handle, so we packed up and headed to our next destination, Girraween National Park just across the border in Queensland.


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## slacker (Dec 14, 2008)

Your artistic talent never ceases to amaze me, Stewart. 

Photos are alright too!


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## moloch05 (Dec 15, 2008)

Great pics, Stewart. Too bad about the cool weather but you still found lots. I have never seen Heath Dragons there before so I will have to be more observant on the next trip.

I like the lighting on the Bearded Dragon.

Interesting frog portrait ... but I am at a loss as to its identity. I hope to be out there this weekend so I will watch to see if it is out on the road again.

Regards,
David


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## ryanharvey1993 (Dec 15, 2008)

nice one stewart, I only managed to find one black rock skink there. also was it hard to photograph the robust ctenotus, they kept escapeing when we tried. got a few shots of them though. I think we found that exact jacky dragon on that same rock aswell, was it just after the top of the grand high tops on the way down? the mountain dragons are actually amphibolurus nobbi coggeri. beardies are always great to see, we found most just near the camp site on the edge of the road where you can take a left or a right. also saw a goulds near there. great shots though.

Ryan


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## dansocks (Dec 15, 2008)

great pics mate!


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