Past few weeks

[waruikazi]

I've been a little lazy the past few weeks with my herping rounds. So here we go, catching up for lost time and i got myself a new camera that i've been playing around with.

I'm beginning to get pretty bored with snakes, i'll start with a few skinks i've found recently, and i've finally worked out the macro function on my camera so i can take pics now.

Morethia storri

Pretty sure this is Ctenotus vertebralis

Carlia amax

Geckoes

I think this is Gehyra nana

Heteronotia planiceps these things are tiny!

Slatey grey, disapeared before we could get at it.

BHP

Childrens, this one was road kill. Was good timing too, i was looking for one to put into my freezer collection.

And this was another fella that i felt like taking pictures of.

Olive, this fella was about 2.4m. This particular spot is crawling with them.

Here's some of the other things you find out here when you're herping. We've also found burial sites out here but out of respect we haven't taken any pictures. Most of these rocky outcrops have human remains and art scattered through them.

And a few landscape pictures. This shot pretty well shows the majority of the area i explore.

And this is what happens when you take your eyes off your dog so you can take a pic of a tiny little skink. It took me 3 hours to find him, even with a tracking collar. He found himself a mile (literally, the GPS told me so when it finally picked up his signal) up a gorge ontop of a cliff that he couldn't get down from. He was pretty happy to see me by the end lol.

I've found plenty more than this over the last month that either my mate took photos of or didn't bother. I'll try and get those pics up soon too.

 

[lizardloco]

Cool, you're very lucky up there!

 

[snakes_666]

pretty cool pics

 

[pythonmum]

Great stuff! I can't wait - leave for my NT trip on 7 July. I have never been to the NT and am really looking forward to it. Unfortunately, I only have a crummy little SureShot, so no fantastic photos from me.

 

[richoman_3]

wow!
awesome photos and finds!

 

[waruikazi]

Yeah i am pretty lucky really well lucky when it comes to wildlife lol. I really need to pull my finger out and start looking for things properly and taking some pictures.

 

[GeckPhotographer]

That landscape shot makes me jealous, the animals you find in it too, but mostly just where it is. Beautiful place to go herping. Oh yeah nice Olive pic too.

 

[waruikazi]

Mines just a little point and squirt too, i decided to by a water and shock proof cam rather than spending big on something that i know i'm going to break.

Where are you headed for your trip?

Great stuff! I can't wait - leave for my NT trip on 7 July. I have never been to the NT and am really looking forward to it. Unfortunately, I only have a crummy little SureShot, so no fantastic photos from me.

 

[Torah]

hold up ..................... whats a freezer collection ???

 

[GeckPhotographer]

Might I inquire how often you see Chameleon Dragons (Chelosania brunnea). I saw one in 2008 when I was lucky enough to be up in the North WA and NT, which I did not get any good photos off. (It was pretty beat up, was on a road had half its tail missing, not full grown). But which I thought was a really cool animal and wanted to see and photograph some more, yet I am aware they are supposedly highly cryptic and rare.

 

[waruikazi]

hold up ..................... whats a freezer collection ???

That's where you keep all of your dead stuff before you send it to the museum, science class, cut it up or stick in a jar of metho.

 

[snakeluvver]

Jeez I wish I was bored of seeing snakes, I've only seen 4.

 

[GeckPhotographer]

Jeez I wish I was bored of seeing snakes

That is a paradox, if you wished that then you would be bored of seeing snakes, if you were bored of seeing snakes you would not wish that..... loop. Unless you wish you were bored of seeing them because not being bored of seeing them is causing adverse effects to something....

 

[waruikazi]

I've never seen one mate, the only dragons i see with any regularity are frillies and Ctenophorus caudocinctus (and i'm not entirely convinced they are actually caudocintus). I do most of my herping either on the roads or in the escarpment looking for the endemic species, that habitat doesn't really match what the chameleon dragons like.

Might I inquire how often you see Chameleon Dragons (Chelosania brunnea). I saw one in 2008 when I was lucky enough to be up in the North WA and NT, which I did not get any good photos off. (It was pretty beat up, was on a road had half its tail missing, not full grown). But which I thought was a really cool animal and wanted to see and photograph some more, yet I am aware they are supposedly highly cryptic and rare.

Jeez I wish I was bored of seeing snakes, I've only seen 4.

Hahaha, i suppose it is a good problem to have , what i try to do now is to find them in creative ways. Like find them in places they aren't meant to be, or while they are hunting etc etc. When you do that you start to find new species and interesting little things about them. Like that Mcleays water snakes have red bellies out here and keelbacks hunt frogs in the evening but hunt for fish and tadpoles in the morning and Furina ornatas eat skinks almost as big as them.

 

[GeckPhotographer]

I've never seen one mate, the only dragons i see with any regularity are frillies and Ctenophorus caudocinctus (and i'm not entirely convinced they are actually caudocintus). I do most of my herping either on the roads or in the escarpment looking for the endemic species, that habitat doesn't really match what the chameleon dragons like.

Hmm ok, when I was up there in the normal touristy part of Kakadu I saw bucket loads of Amphibolurus, Diporiphora bilineata and maybe one D. magna.
Didn't see any Frillies though so I guess it depends where you are looking.

 

[imported_Varanus]

Lucky bugger! Nice Olive and rock art. Goannas were obviously an important part of the diet pre Cane Toads. Any ideas on how old the art is? Any V.Glauerti or Glebopalma by any chance?!

 

[waruikazi]

There are still some goannas around. You still find a few mertens (called burarr by the locals), i've seen one panoptes (galawan) on our floodplains and one that may have been gouldii not too far away in Kakadu along with a few hatchies at different times. I've seen some small goannas in the scrub near the escarpment but they were way too quick for an ID.

Here's the mertens and a pic of where i found him.

Never seen a gleb and interestingly the glauerts out here, according to the herpers i've talked to and Varanoid Lizards of the World, are not glauerts. They don't even live in the escarpment.

Here's another interesting tid bit that i got from a conversation/argument with Gavin Bedford. I was arguing with him that there were still a few panoptes around even though the toads have come through. He disagreed so i told him that i saw four in five minutes one day on the South Alligator floodplain. Then he said that none of them would have been more than 80cm, and he was right. Then he went on to tell me that the SA floodplain panoptes are different to other populations and he suspects they aren't panoptes at all!

The art is pretty timeless hey, they don't do it anymore but the local clans would go and fix up the old art as it was deteriorating in the old days. So i guess it would be pretty hard to get a good idea of the ages. But in the rocks where i took those photos there are pictures of what look like tasmanian tigers and in other locations there are pictures of other long extinct animals that went extinct 40-50 thousand years ago! Also i didn't really try to show it in the pictures i took, but you'll notice the animals are in peices and cut up. The pictures are like an instruction manual on the best ways to cook and share out the different animals.

Here's the tiger looking pic...

 

[pythonmum]

That is so cool - I can't wait! I'm going on a 4WD tour starting on the 8th. Staying in Litchfield on the 8th (Florence Falls, Wangi Falls, Marrakai floodplains), cruising Corroboree billabong on the 9th and going to Bowali visitor Ctr, Ubirr rock and Barramundi Gorge, then on the 10th to Twin falls gorge and Jim Jim falls before returning to Darwin in the evening. On the 11th, 12th and 13th I'm at a conference in Darwin. I've signed up for both events at Crocodyluns Park on Tuesday 12th - a breakfast there and an afternoon tour. I think I will probably lash out and spend an obcene amount of money on a prepared croc skull, too. I've always wanted one. If you are in Darwin during that time, Gordo, I'll shout you a drink. I'm on the school's bill, so not many expenses of my own except the 4WD tour and croc skull

 

[waruikazi]

I'm on school hols then, not sure if i'll be in town or out here. Ubirr is only 15 min from my house, has some pretty flash art up there too, so let us know when you're up and free cause either way if you're in Darwin or Kakadu you'll be in my beighbourhood. Not sure who with or how, but you can do tours up the hill (Injaluk) where i took the pics of the art and stuff.

 

[imported_Varanus]

That's interesting regarding the Glauerts, I've heard that Sam Sweet carried out an extensive study of the area (though not sure of the exact location) and found local Glauerti populations to inhabit trees rather than rocky escarpments?!

Fantastic art shots, again, thanks for sharing. Those stick men remind me of the "Bradshaw" figures from the Kimberley! Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't there a Thylacine portrait near Ubirr? That should date to at least 3000 years ago! Imagine how old the underlying art must be!!