Demansiaphile
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So, I just did a small trip to SA, I don't like using names, so I'll reintroduce you to the Driver and the Twin. Who were first seen here.
http://www.aussiepythons.com/forum/field-herping-reptile-studies-5373/herping-2012-a-199803/
The Driver and I landed in Adelaide late Thursday afternoon. We sat waiting for Twin to join us from Melbourne. This weekend we were all meeting an Internet friend. which we will soon know as Spewy, he had herped the Adelaide area quite extensively and we thought it might be cool to see some different herps we wouldn't normally target. After several months of Internet chatting we all decided to make a date and go for a herp!
Spewy showed up and we made our way to the nearest pub to break the ice and get to know each other. After having much needed guy talk and a chicken schnitzel we headed off to go back to Spewy's house and have a look at his extensive collection of Pygopods.
It was about an hour from Adeliade to Spewys house. Unfortunately that hour turned into 4. As some inconsiderate person broke too hard and suddenly. Which caused a very unhelpful chain reaction. The car which had broke hard made the car infront of us stopped suddenly. Within seconds we collided, I had enough time to brace my feet against the dashboard, as we crashed my head hit the rough and I heard The Driver yelp in pain. Spewy's coke glass glasses flew into the windscreen. Then we all quickly realized in the few split seconds that we had we were in for more. The lights from behind us grew and the tires screeched as the car behind us tried desperately to stop. We all violently jolted forward and I thanked god that I wore my seat belt this time. Cursing, we all made sure we were ok. Eventually we got out of the car an inspected the damage. It was a write off. The front and back bumpers were totaled, the doors struggled to open and the boot did not open. After the shock wore off, we traded insurance details with the four cars that had been involved, the tow trucks came and we got picked up by Spewy's mom.
The night was young but we deicded that we had enough excitement for the night and it was time for a nap.
I woke up at 6, and started Googling car rentals nearby. We also got a message from an Uncle of Spewy that he would let us borrow his car from the family farm. The only problem was that we had to pick it up from there, which was 40 mins away. We decided to rent a car and drive to the farm. Retrieve the borrowed car and then return the rental. This was all very time consuming and we also made a date with another herper to find the infamous Pygmy Blue Tongue at 12:30. We were running late and it seemed everything was going wrong. The truck infront of us was going 10km user the limit and then a house on the back of another truck hindered us even more! We had no food, or esky, no equipment but we had to make a move and deal with this all later.
Eventually we made it to the Pygmy blue tongue site. Here I met a man named Ikol who had be studying and monitoring Pygmy blue tongues.
We didn't have much time as Ikol had to be in town for work purposes. He said that he had looked at the spider burrows that they inhabit but it was still too windy even though that it sunny, furthermore the site has been hit by a strong storm the night before making the soil too wet to bask on. He decided that we should look at them down the burrows using an optical fiber camera. I peered down and saw a tiny pygmy scaly eye blinking back at me. A little disappointed that i didn't get to photograph them but ecstatic to have seen them I promised him I would be back in November.
He also said that we should try flipping all the rocks nearby for Aprasia pseudopulchella. So we started to actively herp I managed to find no Aprasia but a Shingle Back moving through the habitat , which was rather bleak, a hilly grass field with several small rocks scattered sparsely.
I handed the Shingle Back to The Driver and Twin and i went on herping. From the other side of the rolling grass hill I heard Ikol yell out. We quickly made our way towards him and he held a small wormy reptile in his hand. Aprasia pseudopulchella. I was happy my first reptick in less than a few minutes. We sat down to take some very average photos during this time Ikol went to ask the landowner if we could gain access to the rest of the property.
Aprasia pseudopulchella by J. Kelk, on Flickr
We then walked down a long grassy plain for several minutes until we crossed a small rocky creek. After the creek passed the grassland revealed several rocks ad out crops.
Ctenophurus decresii further up the water stream a decreasi hid underneath a dinner plate sized rock. Twin, and I caught it as Spewy lifted the stone.
Ctenophurus decresii by J. Kelk, on Flickr
Delma molleri, extremely abundant at this site. 5-6 specimens were found under hand size rocks ranging from adult to last years hatchlings. Spewy was on a role and found at least 3 of them, Twin nailed it with another 2.
Delma molleri by J. Kelk, on Flickr
Lerista bougainvilli these guy were found several times at the site. Again in the same habitat as Delma mollerii
Lerista bougianvilli by J. Kelk, on Flickr
Considering we had no supplies, not to mention anywhere to sleep we made our way back to town.
Spewy dropped us off at the Big W to buy a tent for Twin and The Driver, as he made a police report about last nights car accident!
I was feeling a little bit restless. I needed to be out in the desert and soon. It had been too long since I gazed on red dunes.
Several hours and one police report later we were at Pernatty. It was cold 20c and I was pessimistic. Even though Spewy was the exact opposite. I would soon learn to trust him whole heartily as we found 2/3 target species plus more in a weekend.
Upon arriving on the destination we found that rain had recently been past here. The ground was a bit firm, insects were still out and about which gave me a slimmer of hope. We soon flipped a small Lerista edwardsae from under a large dead mulga branch. Tick! We also found several more user rocks and more mulga branches.
Lerista edwardsae by J. Kelk, on Flickr
Lerista edwardsae by J. Kelk, on Flickr
http://www.aussiepythons.com/forum/field-herping-reptile-studies-5373/herping-2012-a-199803/
The Driver and I landed in Adelaide late Thursday afternoon. We sat waiting for Twin to join us from Melbourne. This weekend we were all meeting an Internet friend. which we will soon know as Spewy, he had herped the Adelaide area quite extensively and we thought it might be cool to see some different herps we wouldn't normally target. After several months of Internet chatting we all decided to make a date and go for a herp!
Spewy showed up and we made our way to the nearest pub to break the ice and get to know each other. After having much needed guy talk and a chicken schnitzel we headed off to go back to Spewy's house and have a look at his extensive collection of Pygopods.
It was about an hour from Adeliade to Spewys house. Unfortunately that hour turned into 4. As some inconsiderate person broke too hard and suddenly. Which caused a very unhelpful chain reaction. The car which had broke hard made the car infront of us stopped suddenly. Within seconds we collided, I had enough time to brace my feet against the dashboard, as we crashed my head hit the rough and I heard The Driver yelp in pain. Spewy's coke glass glasses flew into the windscreen. Then we all quickly realized in the few split seconds that we had we were in for more. The lights from behind us grew and the tires screeched as the car behind us tried desperately to stop. We all violently jolted forward and I thanked god that I wore my seat belt this time. Cursing, we all made sure we were ok. Eventually we got out of the car an inspected the damage. It was a write off. The front and back bumpers were totaled, the doors struggled to open and the boot did not open. After the shock wore off, we traded insurance details with the four cars that had been involved, the tow trucks came and we got picked up by Spewy's mom.
The night was young but we deicded that we had enough excitement for the night and it was time for a nap.
I woke up at 6, and started Googling car rentals nearby. We also got a message from an Uncle of Spewy that he would let us borrow his car from the family farm. The only problem was that we had to pick it up from there, which was 40 mins away. We decided to rent a car and drive to the farm. Retrieve the borrowed car and then return the rental. This was all very time consuming and we also made a date with another herper to find the infamous Pygmy Blue Tongue at 12:30. We were running late and it seemed everything was going wrong. The truck infront of us was going 10km user the limit and then a house on the back of another truck hindered us even more! We had no food, or esky, no equipment but we had to make a move and deal with this all later.
Eventually we made it to the Pygmy blue tongue site. Here I met a man named Ikol who had be studying and monitoring Pygmy blue tongues.
We didn't have much time as Ikol had to be in town for work purposes. He said that he had looked at the spider burrows that they inhabit but it was still too windy even though that it sunny, furthermore the site has been hit by a strong storm the night before making the soil too wet to bask on. He decided that we should look at them down the burrows using an optical fiber camera. I peered down and saw a tiny pygmy scaly eye blinking back at me. A little disappointed that i didn't get to photograph them but ecstatic to have seen them I promised him I would be back in November.
He also said that we should try flipping all the rocks nearby for Aprasia pseudopulchella. So we started to actively herp I managed to find no Aprasia but a Shingle Back moving through the habitat , which was rather bleak, a hilly grass field with several small rocks scattered sparsely.
I handed the Shingle Back to The Driver and Twin and i went on herping. From the other side of the rolling grass hill I heard Ikol yell out. We quickly made our way towards him and he held a small wormy reptile in his hand. Aprasia pseudopulchella. I was happy my first reptick in less than a few minutes. We sat down to take some very average photos during this time Ikol went to ask the landowner if we could gain access to the rest of the property.
Aprasia pseudopulchella by J. Kelk, on Flickr
We then walked down a long grassy plain for several minutes until we crossed a small rocky creek. After the creek passed the grassland revealed several rocks ad out crops.
Ctenophurus decresii further up the water stream a decreasi hid underneath a dinner plate sized rock. Twin, and I caught it as Spewy lifted the stone.
Ctenophurus decresii by J. Kelk, on Flickr
Delma molleri, extremely abundant at this site. 5-6 specimens were found under hand size rocks ranging from adult to last years hatchlings. Spewy was on a role and found at least 3 of them, Twin nailed it with another 2.
Delma molleri by J. Kelk, on Flickr
Lerista bougainvilli these guy were found several times at the site. Again in the same habitat as Delma mollerii
Lerista bougianvilli by J. Kelk, on Flickr
Considering we had no supplies, not to mention anywhere to sleep we made our way back to town.
Spewy dropped us off at the Big W to buy a tent for Twin and The Driver, as he made a police report about last nights car accident!
I was feeling a little bit restless. I needed to be out in the desert and soon. It had been too long since I gazed on red dunes.
Several hours and one police report later we were at Pernatty. It was cold 20c and I was pessimistic. Even though Spewy was the exact opposite. I would soon learn to trust him whole heartily as we found 2/3 target species plus more in a weekend.
Upon arriving on the destination we found that rain had recently been past here. The ground was a bit firm, insects were still out and about which gave me a slimmer of hope. We soon flipped a small Lerista edwardsae from under a large dead mulga branch. Tick! We also found several more user rocks and more mulga branches.
Lerista edwardsae by J. Kelk, on Flickr
Lerista edwardsae by J. Kelk, on Flickr
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