Central Vic Daytrip.

[NickGeee]

Yesterday I headed up to Central Vic with a mate in order to look for Delma inornata - the olive delma.
We headed out early in the morning, it was nearly negative degrees in Bendigo when I checked the weather app!.
Around 10 we arrived at a spot about 2 hours North of Melbourne, where I was keen to find Mitchells short tailed snakes.
We jumped out and it was not looking good, roughly half an hour and all we turned up was a Boulengers skink! We headed further up the road to an area adjacent to a creek, and almost immediately I heard the shout 'NIGRICEPS'!.
At long long last, the fabled Mitchells short-tail!. Its tail actually was quite short, surprisingly.

Mitchell's short-tailed snake (Parasuta nigriceps) by Nick Gale, on Flickr
I wasnt overly thrilled how the photos came out, it was a ******* to photograph!

Mitchell's short-tailed snake (Parasuta nigriceps) by Nick Gale, on Flickr

Mitchell's short-tailed snake (Parasuta nigriceps) by Nick Gale, on Flickr
Whilst I was photographing the snake my mate also managed to find this Eastern Ctenotus, another new species for me!.

Eastern Ctenotus (Ctenotus orientalis) by Nick Gale, on Flickr
It was pretty cute.

Eastern Ctenotus (Ctenotus orientalis) by Nick Gale, on Flickr
We headed off in the hopes of our main targets, being the olive delma. Afew hours of searching and hundreds of Dwarf and Boulengers skinks we had seen quite afew shed inornata skins, but no Delma!.
We headed off once again to one of the last areas we were keen to checkout, and proceeded to search.
After loosing what could have been an Olive Delma down a spider hole, we gathered ourselves and had a break. I took a step backward and heard a loud squeak about 30cm behind of where my shoe touched the ground.
I was extremely shocked as we found a 20cm long baby ENDANGERED Delma impar chilling right where we were standing. The luck!.

Striped Delma (Delma impar) by Nick Gale, on Flickr

Striped Delma (Delma impar) by Nick Gale, on Flickr
It was absolutely gorgeous!

Striped Delma (Delma impar) by Nick Gale, on Flickr

Striped Delma (Delma impar) by Nick Gale, on Flickr
We left for our final destination for Suta suta, but the details I was given were very vague so we gave up.
Hope you enjoy!.

 

[BredliFreak]

Thanks for some more showin - I mean spectacular Herp trip Nick! I'm sure you just happened to find a Delma impar by chance why can't things like that happen to me?

Don't worry, where there's impar generally there's inornata.

 

[NickGeee]

Thanks for some more showin - I mean spectacular Herp trip Nick! I'm sure you just happened to find a Delma impar by chance why can't things like that happen to me?

Don't worry, where there's impar generally there's inornata.

what can I say
yeah another mate had found inornata up there before, always next time!

 

[BredliFreak]

Good on you nick!

Hey what eastern pygos do you have left?
(I mean out of the south eastern Aprasias, south eastern Delmas, Burton's and Common scaly foot)

- - - Updated - - -

As of yet I only have impar and inornata

 

[NickGeee]

Good on you nick!

Hey what eastern pygos do you have left?
(I mean out of the south eastern Aprasias, south eastern Delmas, Burton's and Common scaly foot)

- - - Updated - - -

As of yet I only have impar and inornata

All of them! Only pygos I have photographed are the Impar, I've seen lepis up in SE NSW. Hopefully heading up to the mallee in a couple of weeks so might get butleri, Australis and afew aprasia.

 

[Wally]

Always enjoy your threads Nick. Nice pics mate.

 

[NickGeee]

Always enjoy your threads Nick. Nice pics mate.

Cheers, much appreciated!

 

[Sdaji]

Enjoyed your pictures Sounds like you had a fun day. The Delma impar must have been exciting! Pretty cool you found it active in mid June

 

[NickGeee]

Enjoyed your pictures Sounds like you had a fun day. The Delma impar must have been exciting! Pretty cool you found it active in mid June

Yeah! Although pretty cold there was lots of sun, so the old matted tussock grass got pretty warm. My fourth impar and I reckon I got more excited than when I found my first haha!