Time for the second instalment of an AWC survey.
This time I was out at Newhaven which is approximately 5 hours drive north-west of Alice, on the edge of the Tanami and pretty much in the middle of nowhere. This post is going to be exceptionally long because I have many images I'd like to share and from my own experience I like reading long posts and if you don't, well you can just browse the images.
The survey went for pretty much all of March and I can say truthfully it's the best thing I've ever done, we saw ridiculous numbers of animals (68 bird species, 58 reptile species and 13 mammal species) and it was all done against the backdrop of red sand and quartzite ranges. Some of the following images only show animals in hand as they did not cooperate upon release. Unfortunately in many cases time was of the essence and photography of secondary importance
Anyway here goes. By the way if you do notice my custom crops, it's just my preference as it better frames the animal imo.
Starting off with Dragons, this is a large male Long-nosed Dragon (Gowidon longirostris) which set himself up at a compost bin to feast on the flies. Unfortunately for a wondering Magpie-Lark, he didn't take kindly to others sharing his meal. Shame I didn't get a better shot of his lunge, was very unexpected haha.
I saw two Thorny Devils whilst out there, in fact the first one I found can actually briefly be seen on a Landline episode featuring AWC's work at Newhaven. Both were seen square in the middle of roads but only the first was posing nicely with tail held high in the high. Naturally I didn't have my camera around for him. By far my favourite reptile species and something I'm really looking forward to finding again for more photos.
Central Military Dragons (Ctenophorus isolepis) were reasonably common and incredibly quick. First image male, second female.
Central Netted Dragons (Ctenophorus nuchalis) were also common but I took no photos worth sharing.
Dwarf Beardies (Pogona minor) were caught a couple of times and to my eye looked very similar to small, grey Central beardies.
The only other dragon species caught during the survey was an unknown Diporiphora. Initially marked down as winneckei, upon closer examination of one specimen it was found to display characteristics of other Diporiphora species as well. A new paper to be published will apparently establish several new species in the area so all Diporiphora individuals were marked down as unknown.
Moving on to Goanna's I sadly only have reasonable images of Pygmy Desert Monitors (Varanus eremius). Other species seen during the survey include Perentie's, Sandies, Tristis, Gillens and Brevicauda, (I missed out on the last two species, brevi's would have been awesome). Luckily though, Pygmy Desert Monitors are extremely cute. This image is of the last one my team caught on the last day of trapping, all others vanished immediately into the spinifex upon release, the little *****.
Skinks of all kinds were very common, with Ctenotus species variation being slightly ridiculous. Overall, the whole survey team trapped 13 different Ctenotus species, 10 of which I saw.
Ctenotus grandis, my favourite because of it's huge size and beautiful coppery colours.
Ctenotus calurus, another very pretty species although their tails weren't particularly blue.
Ctenotus piankai.
Ctenotus quattuordecimlineatus
Ctenotus pantherinus, very common but due to it's large size and unusual colouration it was always cool to trap.
Ctenotus schomburgkii.
Ctenotus leonhardii.
Ctenotus helenae, a very plain and boring species when compared to most of the other Ctenotus species.
A couple of other species of skinks starting with Carlia triacantha.
Lerista bipes, almost identical to Lerista labialis. We differentiated them on the basis of labial scales, bipes eye rested over the second labial, labialis over the third. This was often quite difficult, as these two species are tiny at usually around 5cms of thin, worm like escape artist.
And a Notoscincus ornatus, this species has very large, round eyes.
And now onto the next comment as I've filled up on photos.
This time I was out at Newhaven which is approximately 5 hours drive north-west of Alice, on the edge of the Tanami and pretty much in the middle of nowhere. This post is going to be exceptionally long because I have many images I'd like to share and from my own experience I like reading long posts and if you don't, well you can just browse the images.
The survey went for pretty much all of March and I can say truthfully it's the best thing I've ever done, we saw ridiculous numbers of animals (68 bird species, 58 reptile species and 13 mammal species) and it was all done against the backdrop of red sand and quartzite ranges. Some of the following images only show animals in hand as they did not cooperate upon release. Unfortunately in many cases time was of the essence and photography of secondary importance
Anyway here goes. By the way if you do notice my custom crops, it's just my preference as it better frames the animal imo.
Starting off with Dragons, this is a large male Long-nosed Dragon (Gowidon longirostris) which set himself up at a compost bin to feast on the flies. Unfortunately for a wondering Magpie-Lark, he didn't take kindly to others sharing his meal. Shame I didn't get a better shot of his lunge, was very unexpected haha.
I saw two Thorny Devils whilst out there, in fact the first one I found can actually briefly be seen on a Landline episode featuring AWC's work at Newhaven. Both were seen square in the middle of roads but only the first was posing nicely with tail held high in the high. Naturally I didn't have my camera around for him. By far my favourite reptile species and something I'm really looking forward to finding again for more photos.
Central Military Dragons (Ctenophorus isolepis) were reasonably common and incredibly quick. First image male, second female.
Central Netted Dragons (Ctenophorus nuchalis) were also common but I took no photos worth sharing.
Dwarf Beardies (Pogona minor) were caught a couple of times and to my eye looked very similar to small, grey Central beardies.
The only other dragon species caught during the survey was an unknown Diporiphora. Initially marked down as winneckei, upon closer examination of one specimen it was found to display characteristics of other Diporiphora species as well. A new paper to be published will apparently establish several new species in the area so all Diporiphora individuals were marked down as unknown.
Moving on to Goanna's I sadly only have reasonable images of Pygmy Desert Monitors (Varanus eremius). Other species seen during the survey include Perentie's, Sandies, Tristis, Gillens and Brevicauda, (I missed out on the last two species, brevi's would have been awesome). Luckily though, Pygmy Desert Monitors are extremely cute. This image is of the last one my team caught on the last day of trapping, all others vanished immediately into the spinifex upon release, the little *****.
Skinks of all kinds were very common, with Ctenotus species variation being slightly ridiculous. Overall, the whole survey team trapped 13 different Ctenotus species, 10 of which I saw.
Ctenotus grandis, my favourite because of it's huge size and beautiful coppery colours.
Ctenotus calurus, another very pretty species although their tails weren't particularly blue.
Ctenotus piankai.
Ctenotus quattuordecimlineatus
Ctenotus pantherinus, very common but due to it's large size and unusual colouration it was always cool to trap.
Ctenotus schomburgkii.
Ctenotus leonhardii.
Ctenotus helenae, a very plain and boring species when compared to most of the other Ctenotus species.
A couple of other species of skinks starting with Carlia triacantha.
Lerista bipes, almost identical to Lerista labialis. We differentiated them on the basis of labial scales, bipes eye rested over the second labial, labialis over the third. This was often quite difficult, as these two species are tiny at usually around 5cms of thin, worm like escape artist.
And a Notoscincus ornatus, this species has very large, round eyes.
And now onto the next comment as I've filled up on photos.
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