Snake ID and field herping around TSV

[whcasual79]

thats a water python naivepom.

so far herpin' around townsville i've found, water-pythons, keelbacks, brown an common tree snake, slatey, carpet-python, eastern browns, taipan, adders, western browns, BHP's, spotteds, small-eyes, coral snake, scalely-foots, burton legless lizards, scrub-pythons, my all / curl snakes, heaps of different gecko's.

mate im moving to townsville to go herping wif u lads... dats a top list of reps u seen

 

[redbellybite]

hey naivepom,please dont presume that all 'what looks to be a keelback' is ...you live in an area where rough scales can be found ,and wouldnt want you making the mistake of thinking its harmless when in fact you got a hot one ...keelbacks are duller in colouration,roughies have a glossier look ,and keelbacks have a loreal scale as to where roughies dont ..

 

[iceman]

whcasual79, i'll take you herpin' no worry at all, there is a few reptiles miss off my list that i have found around townsville.

looks an sounds like you had a good night naivepom, where you up Paluma?

 

[naivepom]

hey naivepom,please dont presume that all 'what looks to be a keelback' is ...you live in an area where rough scales can be found ,and wouldnt want you making the mistake of thinking its harmless when in fact you got a hot one ...keelbacks are duller in colouration,roughies have a glossier look ,and keelbacks have a loreal scale as to where roughies dont ..

Thats a very good point redbelly, I say I saw 2 keelbacks but I wouldnt be remotely surprised if they turned out to be something else (Iceman I need your ID skills!). They moved very quickly when I approached and dissappeared before I could get a photo of them - much less manage to see if they had a loreal scale!

Iceman - yep Paluma, Herveys Range Road and Town Common/Pallarenda

 

[iceman]

well do i'll be going out in the next week or 2 so i'll give you a call .

 

[iceman]

theres some old pic's of animals i've found, naivepom.

 

[naivepom]

Very nice iceman, likewise heres a few of mine taken mostly last year....I'm actually off out in a few mins for a quick herping mission to a new potential spot - i'll post any results.

 

[Rainbow-Serpent]

Good herping trip tonight in Townsville despite a bad start of seeing two keelbacks and a water python all roadkill.

2 pythons - one no more than 40cm long (didnt get a photo unfortunately) and this one pictured, I have no idea what sort of python it is though so any help much appreciated.

1 Brown Tree snake

2 Keelbacks

Also saw 2 echidnas and an owl. All in all not a bad night.

The python is a Spotted Python

 

[iceman]

where did you find the death adder an that carpet??

 

[naivepom]

Carpet, BTS and one of the death adders were on a night walk on Maggie - towards the end of last year certain creek beds were apparently riddled with them! The carpet was very placid and remains the only wild snake I have picked up.

After faffing about this afternoon I only had time to go to my usual spot for an hour - I saw 4 snakes, one of which was a water python and the other 3 were quick brown things that I'm just going to assume were keelbacks. All of them dissappeared too quickly to get a photo of, damnit.

 

[naivepom]

Ok saw 5 snakes inside 20 minutes on a drive this evening. Unfortunately they all saw me coming and were at the side of the road so I couldnt have a relaxed look at any of them though they all looked like Keelbacks to me (are they one of the faster snakes? compared to the pythons they just vanish as soon as you get close). Saw another keelback that had just been hit by a car, its tail was still moving and wrapped around my finger but its head was in really bad shape - I moved it to the side of the road but not much else I could do for it.:cry:

On my way home took a brief detour walk and stumbled across this young BTS. It was so placid unlike all the other brown tree snakes I've seen that have all been very snappy. I even handled it a little and it never looked like striking...though i never let the head get anywhere near me - I understand they can cause a quite painfull bite?

 

[Niall]

Woah naivepom great shots!

The second shot of the BTS is a great shot.
Me and my family uselly go up to Cairns every year for a 2 week holiday,
My mum loves townsville, but i have never really liked it as i am uselly in the daintree catching srubbies and taking piks of freashies and all other reptiles, my best was a rainforest dragon, frilled neck lizards and best of all a 2m saltie 3 meters in front of me (scared the **** out of me!).


Niall

 

[naivepom]

Thanks Niall, my photography is getting there but still someway to go before I can do a DantheMan and put up crystal clear, in focus, beautifully setup pictures and call them crap!

Finally managed to get a few pics of the water pythons that seem to be all over the place whenever we have a wet(ish) evening. Oh and saw the little baby hatchling spotted python again tonight, no photos though as he only had his head sticking out from under a rock and dissappeared pretty quick.

 

[naivepom]

Hey, can anyone help me out with an ID for this roadkill?

 

[slacker]

Head's clearly a bit munted, but it looks like a marsh snake to me (Hemiaspis signata).

 

[naivepom]

Cheers Slacker, I appreciate it. Would never have guessed that as my book shows the marsh as really dark but it does say in the description it can be brown so I'll go with that.

 

[naivepom]

Had a very decent hour and a bit of herping last night - saw 10 keelbacks, 1 spotted python and 1 decent sized carpet python so pretty pleased with it. Would of surely seen more had a crazy ex of mine not almost run me off the road in a fit of rage! haha

The carpet python was a really good size but was possibly blind in one eye. I also saw an unidentified snake which was kind of similar to a keelback but slightly different body shape and a very pale face (taipan??).

 

[Kitah]

Naivepom would you by anychance be willing to PM me some of the spots you've visited? Haven't been able to find very much at all in tville.. maybe I just look in teh wrong places at the wrong times? I love photography and would love to find some wild animals to challenge me If not thats ok

Great finds, am so jealous! would love to see a water python, I've never seen one in teh flesh before!

 

[JasonL]

haha xshadowx, are you still having problems finding herps? crikey!, living in Townsville and having trouble finding snakes...you should think about giving it all away and taking up chess .. If you want water pythons, just start doing laps of the cane fields that are close to a water course during rainy weather....

 

[Kitah]

laps of the cane fields hey?

Part of the problem is that I have very little time to go looking. been meaning to go out to the town common again but don't get a chance! 30hrs of contact time at the uni a week and then another 30 or so typing notes etc... eh.. lol