Mission Beach, QLD

[moloch05]

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.

 

[FAY]

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

 

[byron_moses]

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

 

[Snakeluvver2]

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

 

[pythons73]

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..

 

[Flaviruthless]

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

 

[moloch05]

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

 

[kupper]

that gudgeon is insane

 

[Widdup]

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

 

[thals]

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

 

[borntobnude]

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

 

[RiBeag]

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

 

[richoman_3]

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

 

[cadwallader]

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

 

[gecko-mad]

Awesome shots mate! Love the butterflies.

 

[moloch05]

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

 

[borntobnude]

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

 

[whiteyluvsrum]

very nice photos, cheers!