What to find on stradbroke island?

[hornet]

I'm heading to north straddy tomorrow for a night and just wondering what herps can be found there, in paticular what skinks can be found on straddy? I know patternless/weakly patterned Ctenotus robustus can be found there, any good spots to see these skinks? Would love to try and snap a few pics

 

[Jeabou]

Not sure, just steer clear of the bull sharks that come into Cylinder Beach haha.

 

[hornet]

Didnt end up finding much herp life (saw plenty of garden skinks, a few robust skinks and a Calyptotis sp) but did a bit of snorkeling and saw some amazing marine life (no bull sharks luckily lol). Saw a few species and seas cucumber, sea slug, hermit crabs, star fish, brittle stars and sea urchins. Also saw plenty of gobies and other small fish scooting around the rocks, plenty of coral, some jelly fish, a moray eel, a live cowrie, a live cone shell, heaps of fish including a few wobbygongs and some huge black damsel fish. Had a great time and even with the lack of herps this trip i cant wait to go back

 

[cadwallader]

thats a shame you didnt see many reps,
i go surfing on south strad and see a few big coastals every now and then.

 

[hornet]

One big limiting factor was transport, we didnt drive over just took the water taxi over then got picked up by the in laws and stayed with them over night so my only transport was walking. I would love to drive over next time and spend a few nights and do some more "intensive" herping. Some great looking bush on the island (North straddy)

 

[Rainbow-Serpent]

When you go into the bush next time - be sure to check out Brown Lake, go to the area with the playground and swimming spot and go into the bush just a little bit, the place is crawling with gorgeous monitors!
In my album there should be monitor photos from Brown Lake - I can't put them on this thread because my computer seems to hate me

 

[Jonno from ERD]

G'day mate,

We head over to North Straddie a fair bit, we're actually going tomorrow. As you know, you get those weakly patterned Ctenotus robustus as well as weakly pattern Ctenotus arcanus. There's a 100 year old record of a Tiger Snake over there, as well as Ophioscincus truncatus, and I've heard anecdotal reports about Spotted Pythons.

 

[hornet]

Are the robustus and arcanus found together or do they have their own separate area's/habitats they inhabit? Any area's in particular you find good for going for a wander where you actually see some herp life? I will admit it was probably the wrong time of day when i went for a walk yesterday, right in the middle of the day, later that afternoon i started seeing a few large Ctenotus robustus emerging for a final bask