Herping at Lightning Ridge

[greeny1]

as the title suggests this is about the lightning ridge field trip. majority of the group was north copast herp society adn the other 4 people were hawkesberry herps. the trip was organised by hawkesberry group and north coast was invited to come along an in the end we made up the numbers. all the herping we did was early mornigns and late afternoons/nights. here are the photos i took but we did find more than that but couldnt get the pictures. we did also find black headed monitors and inland taipans but couldnt get any pics. if i am wrong with any names please point it out.

Burns Dragons amphibolurus burnsi were common all over the place






Eastern Bearded Dragon Pogona Barbata were also everywhere adn could be seen in the mornings when not looking






Shinglebacks Tiliqua rugosa were everywhere aswell and we could have found about 15 individuals





this was a pair we found together crossing a road








Curl snake Suta Suta the only snake we found besides the taipans and the only one we got to photograph










Box pattern Gecko Lucasium steindachneri




Tesselated Gecko Diplodactylus tesselatus








and there were lots of frogs which i have no idea about and have no frog books to help me out




although im sure this is dwarf tree frog










anyone else who was at the trip please share your photos aswell.

cheers
mark

 

[chickensnake]

Seems like you had fun, and saw heaps

 

[lizardjasper]

find any opals while you were searching? My parents went to lightning ridge last year for a trip, ansd came back with photos of shingles and a dead beardie (mummified) on the road. They also brought me back an opal ring!

 

[lizardjasper]

find any opals while you were searching? My parents went to lightning ridge last year for a trip, ansd came back with photos of shingles and a dead beardie (mummified) on the road. They also brought me back an opal ring!

 

[Acrochordus]

Nice set off photos, looks like you's did pritty good. How come you did photograph the Taipans?
Thanks Tim.

 

[Gecko75]

nice pics Mark, sounded like fun, I doubt the snake was an inland taipan, its to far east there, they were probably western browns. looks like you didn't go to badly!

 

[greeny1]

we couldnt photograph the tapiand because we tried to catch them and they took off, one fown a burrow ad the toher into thic bushes.

actualy we did i did find a tiny bit of opal but i dont think its worth anthing. theres was heaps of poch i found aswell which is what opal grows in but the ones i found didnt have any in them.

 

[greeny1]

actually gecko all the locals and gary said that taipans although they arent really on the maps there are in the area. and from what gary said he thought it was surely a taipan

 

[Gecko75]

only a range extension of a few hundred km, habitat seems alright for them, suppose it is possible, really big shame you didnt get pictures of them. do you have a list of all the stuff you found over the few days? did you see any of the dunnarts?

 

[greeny1]

no dunnarts, dont erally have a list. that was basically it and bynoes, dtellas and marbled geckos which were so common i didnt bother photographing them

 

[greeny1]

cant believe i didnt put the pics of the marm i found. that was my best find, lol. here they are

 

[Gizzard]

woah that must of been an amazing herping trip, good memories for years to come

 

[Gecko75]

wow the marm is beautiful, kicking myself I couldnt make it.

 

[greeny1]

thanks, yeah it was great, the marm was nice but they are nothing to my WA . as for memoreies im pretty sure we are going back in october when the mating seson is on

 

[Rox.n.Lix]

i love that second frog! also, love to see shingle backs in pairs, they always remind of little old grandpa and grandmas who've seen at least their silver wedding anniversary <3. lol

 

[GeckoJosh]

Nice marm, that must have been a highlight for you

 

[greeny1]

sure was, especially considering i found it and i dont normally find anything good. lol

 

[moosenoose]

Great piccies! I also love the frog in the water shot!

 

[greeny1]

i love that second frog! also, love to see shingle backs in pairs, they always remind of little old grandpa and grandmas who've seen at least their silver wedding anniversary <3. lol

yeah the shingle pair, marm and black heade monitors were the highlights for me. the male had that interesting white around the edges of him.

 

[greeny1]

lol, we found that frog like that when we were phoographing the others and everytime you got to close for the photo hed duck back down but come straight back up 50cm away, lol