Dryandra Woodlands, WA (warning: may contain traces of mammals)

[smacdonald]

At the end of October I went over to the TDWG (the international organisation for biodiversity information standards) 2008 conference. The conference was a great success and a fantastic networking opportunity. There was, however, a distinct lack of reptiles at the conference. So at the end of the week I went down to revisit Dryandra Woodland.

Now, Dryandra isn't all about reptiles. Not many people know this, but there are in fact some mammals inhabiting this mosaic of remnant wandoo vegetation. The most commonly seen diurnal mammals are the macropods, such as the western grey kangaroo (Macropus fulliginosus), and the echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus). I saw so many echidnas at Dryandra over the course of a week, I'm surprised the local termite population hasn't gone extinct. I wonder if a termite extinction would have an impact on any other fauna at Dryandra...

Western grey kangaroo (Macropus fulliginosus).




Echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus).




Echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus).




Echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus).
​

The most commonly encountered nocturnal mammals are probably the brushtail possums (Trichosurus vulpecula). They're so common, in fact, that I kept putting off photographing one until the last night, a night on which I (of course) found none. The not-so-commonly encountered mammals of Dryandra include brush-tailed bettongs or woylies (Bettongia penicillata), bilbies (Macrotis lagotis) and red-tailed phascogales (Phascogale calura).

Brush-tailed bettong (Bettongia penicillata) at Karakamia Sanctuary, Western Australia.




Bilby (Lagotis macrotis) at Barna-Mia Sanctuary, Western Australia.




Red-tailed phascogale (Phascogale calura).
​

But of course, I was there for animals of the scaled variety, and I wasn't disappointed. A (sub)species I was really keen to see was the south-western carpet python (Morelia spilota imbricata). A fellow visitor alerted me to a python sunning itself on a log not far away from where I was staying. I dashed (well, as much as one can dash with 16 kilograms of camera gear on ones back) down to the log and, sure enough, there was a carpet snake minding its own business. Exciting stuff! The fact that it was a scrawny, ugly, scarred specimen didn't worry me (much).

South-western carpet python (Morelia spilota imbricata).




South-western carpet python (Morelia spilota imbricata).




The log in which a south-western carpet python (Morelia spilota imbricata) was sheltering.
​

Shingleback skinks (Tiliqua rugosa) were often encountered (sometimes violently) on the roads.

Shingleback skinks (Tiliqua rugosa) at Dryandra Woodland, Western Australia.




Shingleback skinks (Tiliqua rugosa) at Dryandra Woodland, Western Australia.




Shingleback skinks (Tiliqua rugosa) at Dryandra Woodland, Western Australia.




Shingleback skinks (Tiliqua rugosa) at Dryandra Woodland, Western Australia.
​

I saw a King's skink (Egernia kingii) poking around the barbecue area, possibly looking for some left over bacon from that morning's breakfast. He obviously didn't like the look of me (who could blame him) and, as he sought refuge inside the barbecue when I approached, I could only manage to get a pic of his tail end.

King's skink (Egernia kingii).
​

When the sun was out, so too were the little skinks. I saw (but didn't photograph) a Morethia species (probably M. obscura or M. butleri) and plenty of Cryptoblepharus buchananii skinks.

Cryptoblepharus buchananii
​

But of course, there's one animal that makes Dryandra <strong>really</strong> famous. The animal that draws people to this out-of-the way park. An iconic, charismatic species that enchants and enthrals all who see it: Lerista distinguenda.

Lerista distinguenda
​

I mucked around with some timelapse photography when I was out there, capturing an hour-long sequence of a sunset. It doesn't want to embed (edit: OK, so now it wants to embed itself), so here's the link:

YouTube - Sunset time-lapse

 

[rebeccalg]

Aren't you glad you carry around 16kg of camera equipment? Great pics. Love the shinglebacks!

 

[smacdonald]

Aren't you glad you carry around 16kg of camera equipment?

I'm definitely glad. The Virgin Blue girl, on the other hand, had a bit of an issue with me taking it on as hand luggage, but I batted my eye lashes and charmed my way out of that...


Stewart

 

[ryanharvey1993]

nice shots stewart, looks like a succesful trip in the way of mammals, I would love to see a bilby one day. cant wait to see pics of more of your trips

Ryan

 

[Nephrurus]

Very nice Stewart... I missed the Woylie when I was there, but got Numbat instead. I found a nice SW carpet as well. We had a bit of rain during the night and found Helioporus albopunctatus and Mitchells short tailed snake.

I have a similar king skink photo too, although mine is sticking out of a coke vending machine on Rottnest Island.

I managed to get a few nice photos too. None as nice as your red tailed phascogale photo though. That is an absolute ripper.


all the best,

-H

 

[smacdonald]

I saw plenty of numbats this time, too. But I figured they were too cute and cuddly for this site.

The phascogale was quite easy to photograph. He was on that log for a while, not moving.

When were you there?


Stewart

 

[slacker]

Now, Dryandra isn't all about reptiles. Not many people know this, but there are in fact some mammals inhabiting this mosaic of remnant wandoo vegetation.

Well, there's got to be something for the reptiles to eat ;-)

Nice work, of course, Stewart.

 

[Bushfire]

Dryandra is a beautiful place in the southern wheatbelt. I was fortunate to have worked there for 18 months on an as then called CALM work crew. There is heaps of carpets out there but two of the most pleasing finds was a thorny devil crossing the track and a southern death adder as we were doing maintenance on the barna mia enclosures. The mammals were also great to work with and full of character like the care takers of Dryandra lodge. Traces of my handy work can be found on the tour drive where I put in all the bollards in the parking bays and the information boards. It was my first day on the job digging those holes in 38oC and I thought bloody WA, luckily the wildlife there made up for it. I highly recomend anyone and/or everyone to visit Dryandra if travelling to WA.

P.S Possums were a big problem in the park as many of the endangered mammals were pushed out of the hollows which kinda surprised me as there are thousands and thousands of hollows. We regularly conducted possum trapping around release areas and the barna mia and not too far away breeding enclosures as apart from trying to take over the enclosures regularly did damage to the fences.

 

[ecosnake]

I like the time laps that was very cool

 

[moloch05]

Hello Stewart,

Your photos are always tops. What sort of lighting do you use such as in the photo of Lerista distinguenda? Are you using multiple flashes?


Regards,
David

 

[smacdonald]

Thanks for the comments, everyone. After Western Australia I went to Sydney, Brisbane, Rockhampton, Cairns, Mt Isa and Darwin, so I've got a couple more pics to put up somewhere.

Your photos are always tops. What sort of lighting do you use such as in the photo of Lerista distinguenda? Are you using multiple flashes?

Hi David,

Yep, generally I use three or four flashes to remove any harsh shadows:

I have three flashes on the bracket (two remote flashes and the camera's built-in flash). Sometimes I use a fourth remote flash to add light to the background, or to give a bit of backlighting/rim lighting to the animal.

You can see these flashes reflected in the eyes in a number of pics:

Stewart