moloch05
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I have just returned from an eight day trip to South Australia. As usual, I clocked up many kilometers (over 6000) so spent hours in the car. This was my first herping trip to this part of Australia and there were many beautiful dragons in the genus Ctenophorus that I hoped to photograph. Unfortunately, my trip and sightings were curtailed somewhat by car problems ... the outback of SA is not a good place to break down ... but I found a few of my targets.
I will begin with Kimba area. Kimba is a small town located at the northern end of the Eyre Peninsula and it is the half-way point when driving from the east coast to the west coast. Kimba was a 22 hour drive from Wollongong.
I spent most of my time about 20km east of the little town in the Lake Gillies Conservation Park. The habitat here was mallee (a shrubby eucalpytus) with spinifex and bluebush (a chenopod) understorey.
Lake Gillies is one of the many salt lakes of South Australia.
I also examined shrublands further east (80km) between Kimba and Port Augusta.
... a remote station:
In the mallee of Lake Gillies, I soon found one of the dragons on my wish list. It was the fairly large, Crested Dragon (Ctenophorus cristatus). Males of this species are strikingly marked lizards that will bipedal when scurrying away.
... I assume that this is a female due to the drab colouration:
I also saw a few Painted Dragons (Ctenophorus pictus). These lizards tended to live in shrubs near the edge of the salt lake.
... this one was sunning at the top of a shrub. While I watched it, it spotted an insect on the ground a couple of meters away. It leapt from the shrub and then raced over to the insect that attempted to fly away. The dragon jumped up, snatched it out the air and did a flip before landing again on the sand. It was an agile creature!
Central Bearded Dragons (Pogona vitticeps) lived in the mallee woodland. This highly cropped photo shows a male that appears to be advertising its presence from the top of a dead clump of spinifex. The yellow made the lizard conspicuous even from a fair distance. As soon as I stepped out of the car, the lizard dropped a little into the grass and instantly turned off its "bright lights". It then blended well and allowed me to closely approach it.
This bearded dragon ran from the road and hid in a thicket. It blended well and was easy to loose even though it was a large lizard.
Central Bearded Dragons from the shrublands east of Kimba looked quite different to those from the mallee. I saw many as they sunned themselves from the tops of bluebush one morning. All were about the same size and were much smaller than their mallee-inhabiting relatives. Their colouration was also different with an orange stripe on the face. I have never read of different races of this dragon occurring on the Eyre Peninsula so I suppose that the differences are just habitat related adaptations. Dwarf Bearded Dragons (Pogona minor) also occur in the western half of South Australia but the field guide indicates that they do not have spines across the throat.
Skinks included this Southern Mallee Ctenotus (Ctenotus atlas), a lifer to me. Ctenotus skinks are often hard to identify but this species has a distinctive pattern of stripes without spots.
I saw my first Desert Skink (Egernia inornata) on the road at night. It appeared to be a very fast "gecko" that allowed me to approach it but then it raced off before I could take a photo. Desert Skinks are crepuscular/nocturnal skinks.
This Edward's Slider (Lerista edwardsae) is one of the endemics of the Eyre Peninsula. This species lacks front legs and it is one of the sand swimmers. I was lucky to see it on the road at night.
Shingelbacks (Tiliqua rugosa) were common on the road in the mornings and then again late in the day when the temperatures were a little cooler.
I strangely did not see any geckos on the road near Kimba on either of my two night drives. Temperatures/moon phase were good but they just were not out. I had hoped to find Starred Knob-tailed Geckos (Nephrurus stellatus), a species with most of its range in South Australia.
I did see a few snakes. These included two Jan's Banded Snakes (Simoselaps bertholdii). Aussie elapids in general are a sombre lot but the little Simoselaps are one of the few exceptions and are flamboyantly patterned. They also have an interesting life style. They spend much of their time beneath the surface of the sand where they hunt skinks such as the Lerista included in the above photos. Simoselaps are far more interesting to me than their bigger and more venomous relatives.
... snake 1
... snake 2
I also found two Southern Shovel-nosed Snakes (Brachyurophis semiannulata). They also were coloured differently to those that I have seen at Kalbarri, WA. Here in SA, they seem to be brick red whereas those from the west were yellow. This species has a very specialized diet that consists of reptile eggs.
... snake 1
... snake 2
I encountered two live and one DOR blind snakes. I think that these were Ramphotyphlops bituberculatus due to the trilobed snout. This species is one of the smaller blind snakes.
... snake 1
... snake 2
Regards,
David
I will begin with Kimba area. Kimba is a small town located at the northern end of the Eyre Peninsula and it is the half-way point when driving from the east coast to the west coast. Kimba was a 22 hour drive from Wollongong.
I spent most of my time about 20km east of the little town in the Lake Gillies Conservation Park. The habitat here was mallee (a shrubby eucalpytus) with spinifex and bluebush (a chenopod) understorey.
Lake Gillies is one of the many salt lakes of South Australia.
I also examined shrublands further east (80km) between Kimba and Port Augusta.
... a remote station:
In the mallee of Lake Gillies, I soon found one of the dragons on my wish list. It was the fairly large, Crested Dragon (Ctenophorus cristatus). Males of this species are strikingly marked lizards that will bipedal when scurrying away.
... I assume that this is a female due to the drab colouration:
I also saw a few Painted Dragons (Ctenophorus pictus). These lizards tended to live in shrubs near the edge of the salt lake.
... this one was sunning at the top of a shrub. While I watched it, it spotted an insect on the ground a couple of meters away. It leapt from the shrub and then raced over to the insect that attempted to fly away. The dragon jumped up, snatched it out the air and did a flip before landing again on the sand. It was an agile creature!
Central Bearded Dragons (Pogona vitticeps) lived in the mallee woodland. This highly cropped photo shows a male that appears to be advertising its presence from the top of a dead clump of spinifex. The yellow made the lizard conspicuous even from a fair distance. As soon as I stepped out of the car, the lizard dropped a little into the grass and instantly turned off its "bright lights". It then blended well and allowed me to closely approach it.
This bearded dragon ran from the road and hid in a thicket. It blended well and was easy to loose even though it was a large lizard.
Central Bearded Dragons from the shrublands east of Kimba looked quite different to those from the mallee. I saw many as they sunned themselves from the tops of bluebush one morning. All were about the same size and were much smaller than their mallee-inhabiting relatives. Their colouration was also different with an orange stripe on the face. I have never read of different races of this dragon occurring on the Eyre Peninsula so I suppose that the differences are just habitat related adaptations. Dwarf Bearded Dragons (Pogona minor) also occur in the western half of South Australia but the field guide indicates that they do not have spines across the throat.
Skinks included this Southern Mallee Ctenotus (Ctenotus atlas), a lifer to me. Ctenotus skinks are often hard to identify but this species has a distinctive pattern of stripes without spots.
I saw my first Desert Skink (Egernia inornata) on the road at night. It appeared to be a very fast "gecko" that allowed me to approach it but then it raced off before I could take a photo. Desert Skinks are crepuscular/nocturnal skinks.
This Edward's Slider (Lerista edwardsae) is one of the endemics of the Eyre Peninsula. This species lacks front legs and it is one of the sand swimmers. I was lucky to see it on the road at night.
Shingelbacks (Tiliqua rugosa) were common on the road in the mornings and then again late in the day when the temperatures were a little cooler.
I strangely did not see any geckos on the road near Kimba on either of my two night drives. Temperatures/moon phase were good but they just were not out. I had hoped to find Starred Knob-tailed Geckos (Nephrurus stellatus), a species with most of its range in South Australia.
I did see a few snakes. These included two Jan's Banded Snakes (Simoselaps bertholdii). Aussie elapids in general are a sombre lot but the little Simoselaps are one of the few exceptions and are flamboyantly patterned. They also have an interesting life style. They spend much of their time beneath the surface of the sand where they hunt skinks such as the Lerista included in the above photos. Simoselaps are far more interesting to me than their bigger and more venomous relatives.
... snake 1
... snake 2
I also found two Southern Shovel-nosed Snakes (Brachyurophis semiannulata). They also were coloured differently to those that I have seen at Kalbarri, WA. Here in SA, they seem to be brick red whereas those from the west were yellow. This species has a very specialized diet that consists of reptile eggs.
... snake 1
... snake 2
I encountered two live and one DOR blind snakes. I think that these were Ramphotyphlops bituberculatus due to the trilobed snout. This species is one of the smaller blind snakes.
... snake 1
... snake 2
Regards,
David
