West Qld 06

[Macca]

Hey, finally a field forum on the site. These are some photos from a fairly recent herp trip around western Queensland. The habitat is mostly semi-arid. We spent 6 days on this trip, travelling 6500km, leaving from and returning to Sydney. A total of 55 herp species were found.

The first herp seen on this trip was this juvenile western brown snake Pseudonaja nuchalis.

The Curl Snake (Suta suta)

And of course, there are many many species of gecko out there. Below is a Box-patterned Gecko (Diplodactylus steindachneri)

A Beaked Gecko (Rhynchoedura ornata)

A Northern Spiny-tailed Gecko (Strophurus ciliaris)

An Eastern Spiny-tailed Gecko (Strophurus williamsi)

and a Robust Dtella (Gehyra robusta)

Varanids are also a very common site out there. Below is a Yellow-spoted Monitor (Varanus panoptes) after foraging through the mud.

A Sand Monitor (Varanus gouldii).

And a Ridge-tailed Monitor (Varanus acanthurus).

Just a few of the Agamids we came across.
Below is one you would all be familiar with. This is a juvenile Central Bearded Dragon (Pogona vitticeps).

A Burns' Dragon (Amphibolurus burnsi)

A Pebble Dragon (Tympanocryptis cephalus), so named by its ability to camoulflage amongst the gibber pebbles.

A Black-soil Plains Bearded Dragon (or whatever common name you know it by) (Pogona henrylawsoni).

Skinks were the most diverse family found on the trip. Here a few photo of the larger species. Below is a shot of an adult and a juvneile Shingleback Skink (Tiliqua rugosa).

A fairly ordinary looking Centralian Blue-tongued Skink (Tiliqua multifasciata).

A Yakka Skink (Egernia rugosa).

And a Panther Ctenotus (Ctenotus pantherinus)

A small species of legless lizard (Delma nasuta) who didn't want to sit still for a photo.

Below are a few varied habitat shots on the trip.

And lastly for the snake lover, a red-phase Common Death Adder who greeted us on the road back into Sydney.

Cheers,

Michael

 

[PremierPythons]

Outstanding mate - thanks for sharing...

 

[moloch05]

Beautiful pics, Macca. I have seen many Shinglebacks but never a juvenile. You found so many great herps!

Regards,
David

 

[Ned_fisch]

Nice mate, them last few pics, is that in the Windorah area?

 

[Macca]

Hey Trouser,

The first two habitat shots, in addition to the Burns' dragon, Sand Monitor, Curl Snake and Northern Spiny-tail Gecko were all in the general Windorah area.

Overall, we headed from Sydney straight up and across to Windorah, then up through Jundah to Winton, then west across to Boulia, up through Dajarra to Mt Isa, east across to Cloncurry before heading back toward Sydney via the St George/Roma area.

 

[smacdonald]

Overall, we headed from Sydney straight up and across to Windorah, then up through Jundah to Winton, then west across to Boulia, up through Dajarra to Mt Isa, east across to Cloncurry before heading back toward Sydney via the St George/Roma area.

In six days!!? You're keen!

Stewart

 

[smacdonald]

Another thing... If you found 55 species, my calculations indicate that you owe us another 30 photos...


Stewart

 

[Macca]

Unfortunately it could only be 6 days as herping with a work colleague whilst working in a small team usually means the maximal travel time is under a week.

We got 47 reptiles and 8 frog species. This trip was done before I got my little old camera which means many of the photos of other species aren't very clear. Rather than post those, I'll put up photos of a number of other herping trips over the last couple of years in a few days.

Cheers,

Michael

 

[snakes4me2]

Love the pics, thanks for sharing

 

[ryanharvey1993]

wow, you found heaps, all spotted by car? or some on foot

 

[Vincent21]

Awesome pictures!
thanks for sharing them with us.

 

[Macca]

Hi Ryan,

A combination of both. This trip was in February which is very hot in semi-arid areas. For this reason, most critters seen were spotlighting from the car at night. However, you can still find quite a few by searching on foot or by car in the early morning before it gets too hot. Its a matter of knowing which species occur there and the microhabitats they're found in.

 

[warren63]

Great pics and thanks for sharing them

 

[tooninoz]

Macca, thanks for posting this. There's some incredible pics of both herps and the areas you visited. Great work!
cheers, toon

 

[cracksinthepitch]

Love the shots, always good to see the landscape shots of their habitat as well for the less informed like me , thanks

 

[WombleHerp]

wow thats awesome
anyone i know go with you?
i wish i went on trips like this, i might organise something with a few people i know to help me i.d everything! practise makes perfect! what frog species did you find? (im still going on strong with the frog thing! but obviously still dont know enough means more study! )


Nat

 

[Ryan93]

damm mate your one lucky guy finding that many herps. Down here in gippsland i have troubles finding one. LOL