Wild Queensland -- Nov 2011

[SamNabz]

No, all the dragons drowned one very wet night in the floods at the beginning of the year.

That sucks mate, sorry to hear. You had a great collection of them too...

 

[moloch05]

Thanks very much, everyone, for the feedback.

richoman,
We saw many centipedes but only a few scorpions. I went back through my photos and those of my friends but could not locate any centipede shots.

SamNabz,
I use a Canon 40D with a 100mm macro at night or a 180mm macro by day. My friend was using a Nikon D90 with a 105mm macro.


Thanks, Danny, for the info regarding the Tympanocryptis. Very interesting.


Regards,
David

 

[dneti]

Really amazing shots mate! Keep it up!

 

[cement]

Hands down your threads take the cake David. i drop everything to check them out, your photography is superb! Thanks.

 

[moloch05]

Mission Beach

Thanks very much, dneti and cement.

After two interesting days near Winton, we drove on to Porcupine Gorge NP near Hughenden. This was only a short drive of a few hours. Unfortunately, there were bush fires in the area so it was smoky and conditions for photographs were not good.

Along the way, we stopped at a lookout with several large Queensland Bottle Trees (Brachychiton sp.). These fat trees remind me a little boabs from the Kimberleys or baobabs from Madagasgar.

The gorge was filled with smoke. Something interesting here were the large fish that could be seen in some of the pools far below. They were dark and looked like huge Sooty Grunters.

The habitat above the gorge was dry eucalyptus savannah.

My friends thought that this must be one of the native Erythrina (coral bean) Trees.

We went for a night drive but only saw a single fast pygopodid and many marsupials. Rufous Bettong were numerous. These were small macropods that are not much larger than a rabbit.

Andrew's shot:

Andrew also photographed this Spectacled Hare Wallaby. This species was new to me. It seemed to be fairly common in the area.

After awhile, we gave up on the night drive and walked to a lookout. Although it was dry, we found this huge Green Tree Frog sitting on the trunk of a tree.

We called it a night and Andrew and I headed to our tents. Ted visited the washroom and soon we heard the call of "Snake!". Ted saw what looked like a cord wrapped around one of the floorboards but it did not look right to him. He had a look under the washroom and saw the head and tail of the snake so he called us over. It turned out to be an interesting little elapid that was new to me, a Pale-headed Snake (Holocephalus bitorquatus). We watched it for awhile. It was methodically checking the cracks between the floorboards for geckos. On one occasion, we saw a Gehyra dubusia emerge and run for its life when the snake checked the crack where the gecko had been hiding.

One of the Cryptoblepharus skinks. I have not yet checked the distribution vs. species so don't yet know the identity of this little Snake-eyed Skink.

The following day, we drove on to Mission Beach. While heading towards the coast, we stopped briefly at the White Mountains NP. I hoped to be lucky enough to find the Dark Opal (Nesolycaena medicea), an endemic butterfly that is active in November. I soon found a bronze-coloured butterfly and thought that I had found my target. After taking a photo, I realized that I had the much more common and widespread Twin Dusky-Blue (Candalides geminus).

We also saw this large, freshly killed (DOR) Greater Black Whip Snake (Demansia papuensis).

oops ... meant Gehyra dubia, not Gehyra dubusia.


We arrived at Mission Beach in the late afternoon. Mission Beach is a coastal village that is surrounded by rainforest. Unfortunately, Cyclone Yasi did enormous damage to the area when in struck in February of this year. The rainforest canopy is gone for now. It will be a number of years before the plants regenerate to their prior beauty.

Here are a few before/after shots of the Mission Beach area:

Mission Beach in Nov 2010:

... now

Lacey Creek area in Nov 2010:

... now

Birds, butterflies and reptiles were all relatively scarce. I was very pleased to see this Southern Cassowary one afternoon. There seemed to be little fruit available and I was afraid that their numbers might have been decimate by the cyclone. I spoke to the volunteers at the information centre and they think that only 9 Cassowaries were killed at Mission Beach by the cyclone. Mission Beach is the best place in Australia for this big bird.

Butterflies were relatively scarce but I did see a few. One of the more common species on this visit was the Large Green-banded Blue (Danis danis), a gorgeous species. Depending upon the light, its colour varied from turquoise to bottle green.

The Green-banded Blue (Nacaduba cyanea) had similar markings but was much smaller.

I saw Black-spotted Flash (Hypolycaena phorbas) on several occasions.

Common Grass Blue (Zizina labradus)

blue1: still working on the identification

blue2: still working on the identification

Orange Bush Browns (Mycalesis terminus) were one of the most common butterflies along the forest edge.

I found a single Orange Plane (Pantoporia consimilis) at Lacy Creek

Ambrax Swallowtail (Papilio ambrax)

Skippers are always difficult. I think that these are Greenish Darter (Telicota ancilla) rather than Northern Large Darter (T. ohara) due to the pattern of the underwings.

Darter of some sort (Telicota sp.)

I think that the following are Wide-brand Grass-Darts (Suniana sunias):

We found this lovely Jungle Carpet Python (Morelia spilota) on a drive near Mission Beach.

Brown Tree Snakes (Boiga irregularis) were the most commonly encountered snake near Mission Beach.

Litoria jungguy are sexually dimorphic with small yellow males and large brown females. These frogs were common along Lacey Creek.

We also saw a couple of the White-lipped Tree Frogs (Litoria infrafrenata). These are the largest of all tree frogs.

Creek Frog (Litoria rheocola)

This Striped Possum was looking for insects in a rotting tree.

Rhinoceros Beetle

Robber Fly eating a preying mantis:

 

[jordanmulder]

Wow that H.Bitorquatus was a good find... I'm very partial to hoplocephalus though...

 

[Pilchy]

amazing pictures really looking forward to see more

 

[moloch05]

Thanks, Jordan and Daniel.

After Mission Beach, we drove to Chillagoe for a couple of nights. This is an interesting area with lots of limestone outcrops and caves. There were thunderstorms each night.

The surrounding habitat was dry eucalyptus savannah. Large termite mounds were numerous in some area.

These rocky habitats were good for lizards.

Outcrop Rock Skink (Liburnascincus mundivensis). I found several on rocks at the mouth of a cave.

Chillagoe Litter Skink (Lygisaurus rococo). This little skink is only found at Chillagoe. They seem to be crepuscular.

Lined Rainbow-Skink (Carlia jarnoldae). Males are particularly colourful.

Lively Rainbow Skink (Carlia vivex)

One of the Snake-eyed Skinks (Cryptoblepharus sp.)

Barsided Skinks were often seen near the entrance or within caves. I think that these are Northern Barsided Skinks (Eulamprus brachysoma) but am not certain of the identification.

We saw a few of the Two-lined Dragons (Diporiphora bilineata). These were often tame and allowed close approach. The one below was watching something between Andrew and I. It then hopped off the rock, ran to our feet and captured a walking stick that we had disturbed. It ate this while standing right at our feet.

At night, Ring-tailed Geckos (Cyrtodactylus tuberculatus) were abundant on the rocks. These could be quite large.

We found a single Northern Velvet Gecko (Oedura castelnui), a really beautiful species.

New to me was a Zigzag Velvet Gecko (Oedura rhombifer).

Prickly Geckos (Heteronotia binoei) were fairly common. I also saw a single Nactus chevreti but do not have a photo.

... Andrew's shot of another:

This Tree Dtella (Gehyra variegata) was oddly marked.

Dubious Dtella (Gehyra dubia) were common.

Burton's Snake-Lizard (Lialis burtonis)

Brown Tree Snake (Boiga irregularis)

Andrew found this Spotted Python (Antaresia maculosa) at night near a cave. It looked as if it was waiting to ambush a bat.
(Andrew's photo)

Blue Argus (Junonia orithya) are beautiful butterflies. They were common in the grassy areas.

The entrances to caves attracted large numbers of butterflies. Most of these were Common Crows (Euploea core) but I also saw a few Two-brand Crows (Euploea sylvester)and Lined Grass-Yellows.

Common Crow (Euploea core)

... one perched on snake skin, probably that of a Spotted Python (Antaresia maculosa)

Two-brand Crow (Euploea sylvester)

Lined Grass-Yellow (Euema laeta). These were shy and invariably landed where they were at least partly hidden by dry grass.

Lurcher (Yoma sabina). Only observed once when it stopped briefly on the trail.

Clearwinged Swallowtails (Cressida cressida) were common but they rarely seemed to settle. Andrew found and photographed this male.

Huntsman

Tarantula

 

[richoman_3]

very nice !!! love the ring tailed gecko and jungle!
T looks interesting, did you get any more shots of it?

 

[Colin]

fantastic pics as always david

 

[feathergrass]

awesome pics ! love the captions you have with them there are so many diffrerent dragons out there i would love to have a home just for every dragon out there but they look soo beautiful in the wild ..once again awesome will look forward to more

 

[moloch05]

Georgetown

Thanks, all. No more tarantula shots, Richo. It remained under the rock.

After Chillagoe, my friends and I shifted out to Georgetown. Georgetown is an gold-mining town at the base of Cape York. One of these abandoned mines has a dam that can be quite good for some of the northern birds. I also wanted to see if the Merten's Water Monitors were still along the creek where I found them 5 years ago.

The drive out passed through dry country. I usually stop at this creek since it is usually good for a variety of lizards.

I checked this pool again and found Merten's Water Monitors (Varanus mertensi). They were here on a herping trip back in 2007. This was pleasing since Cane Toads were abundant. The monitors have obviously learned not to eat the toxic pests.

We stopped initially in the afternoon. The temperture was in the low 40s so was too hot to see much. It did not take long, though, to find a couple of these.
Merten's Water Monitors (Varanus mertensi)

Then next day, we stopped by earlier in the morning and found these while they were still heating up. One of them gaped but I don't know whether this was a threat or part of its thermoregulatory behaviour.

As long as we moved slowly, the monitor would allow us to approach for photos.

These little Shaded-litter Rainbow Skinks (Carlia munda) were abundant.
male:

female:

These Kapoks or Silk Cotton Trees (Bombax sp.) were fruiting. Red-winged Parrots were ripping into the seed pods. Red-wings are gorgeous birds in flight with the lime-green bodies and scarlet wing patch.

male Red-winged Parrot:

female:

We went for a night drive but saw very little. The best find was this Curl Snake (Suta suta):

We also found a couple of these Burton's Snake-Lizards (Lialis burtonis). They certainly vary in colour. See TNWJackson's report from the top end to see even more of the lizards.

We saw a skinny "gecko" and stopped to find this nicely coloured Two-lined Dragon (Diporiphora bilineata).

There was very little on the road. We finally decided to walk and had much better success. These small pythons were common. I am not certain about their identity. I assumed that they were Spotted Pythons (Antaresia maculosa) but when I look at the book, it seems that Stimson's (A. stimsoni) would also be possible. Most of these were found in ambush positions along a dry creek or in trees.

We blundered into this snake and immediately jumped back until we realized that it was a harmless Keelback (Tropidonophis mairii).

spider

Tawny Frogmouths "sang" all night at the campground. The next morning we found a pair and their kids.

... a native milkweed (Andrew's photo)

 

[waruikazi]

I'm jealous Moloch! Has the rain arrived out there yet?

 

[Wally]

I almost feel like I've been on a trip myself, great thread.

 

[tropicbreeze]

"... a native milkweed (Andrew's photo)"
That's not a native, it's Calatropis procera, Rubber Bush, a bad weed in the north of Australia. It has light seed spread by wind. A native of southern Asia.

 

[moloch05]

Atherton Tablelands

Thanks, all.

waruikazi, the clouds were building but the wet had not really commenced yet near Georgetown.

tropicbreeze, thanks for the info. I only saw these as sporadic, isolated plants. I did not recognize these as an invasive species.


From Georgetown, we had a relatively short drive back to the Atherton Tablelands. This is a beautiful part of Australia with remnant patches of montane rainforest. The tablelands are usually lush and green and this year was not an exception. I was a little slack here and did not take much in the way of habitat shots. Here is shot from a couple of years ago. It is an example of what much of the tablelands is like:

The tableslands have a number of waterfalls and crater lakes. Here is the lovely Millaa Millaa Falls.

... and the Millstream Falls:

... Andrew's photo near the falls at Mt. Hypipamee.

We had good luck here with a couple of the more interesting geckos. Northern Leaf-tailed Geckos (Saltuarius cornutus) were numerous at one of the sites. Their eyes were reflective and we could see them high in the trees. They usually were standing near the base of large epiphytic ferns such as the birdsnest and staghorn in this photo:

Their bodies were flattened and they were well camouflaged when standing on the trunk of a tree:

... nice eyes:

Even more exciting was my first Chameleon Gecko (Carphodactylus laevis). I have looked for these on a number of occasions over the years. I was surprised by the large size of the gecko, the length of the legs and its general "inertness". It hardly moved at all while we photographed it.

The gecko seemed to have visors over the eyes. I wonder if this has anything to do with the high rainfall in these mountains?

We went spotlighting a couple of times for possums. The tablelands are the home of several relict species and we saw two of these: Herbert River Ringtail Possum and Green Ringtail Possum. Green Ringtails are such beautiful animals. This one decided to rest and it curled into a ball. Possums have a thumb and first finger that is opposable to the other three digits.

... one of the possums was carrying this adorable baby on its back. The baby would reach out and nibble on leaves while the mum was feeding.

Sleeping Bower Shrike-Thrush, an Atherton endemic.

Common Brush-tailed Possum (Andrew's photo). This is a normal colour phase. We also saw the bronzy colour phase as well.

Long-nosed Bandicoot (Andrew's photo):

Andrew also photographed this bizarre arachnid:

At night, these little fungi were phosphorescent. In some areas, the fungus covered the soil and this would all be glowing green. Glow worms were also frequent. These were all nice to see when the flashlights were flicked off.

White-kneed King Crickets:

During the day, we found this lone Boyd's Forest Dragon (Hypsilurus boydii)

Rainforest Sunskink (Lampropholis coggeri)

Eastern Water Skink (Eulamprus quoyii)

one of the Snake-eyed Skinks (Cryptoblepharus sp.)

This Nobbi Dragon (Amphibolurus nobbi) was in its nice breeding colours.

The most interesting to me was this small Spotted Tree Monitor (Varanus scalaris) that was initially on the ground but then climbed to the top of a big rainforest tree.
Spotted Tree Monitor (Andrew's photo):

Butterflies were here in low numbers. I did see this lifer, a Yellow-banded Jezebel (Delias ennia). This and several other butterflies were feeding in a tree but they remained several meters above me. They never came down to where I might take better shots.

I also saw this Red-banded Jezebel (Delias mysis) that was feeding even higer in the tree.

Black Jezebels (Delias nigra) were seen occasionally in the gloom of the rainforest understorey.

These Tailed Emperors (Polyura semipronius) were big and impressive butterflies. This one eventually perched beneath a branch about 2m above me. I think that they look a little like the Blue Nawabs in Singapore and Malaysia.

Hamadryad (Telervo zoilus), our only Ithomiinae.

 

[Wookie]

Great photos! I'm surprised all those pixels didn't crash the server

 

[Smithers]

Thank you so much, always look forward to your threads never failing to give top notch pics with the bonus of text to go with it makes it like we are with you along the trip. Thank you. Adore the gecko images, sorry bit bias there

 

[moloch05]

Jourama Falls

Thanks, Wookie and Smithers. Geckos are one of my favourite families as well. We are lucky to have such an incredible diversity in Australia.


We left Atherton after two nights and began our return journey. We stopped briefly in Cairns and walked through the botanic gardens. I hoped to show the guys the nicely coloured Little Kingfisher but could not locate it. We did have good views of Yellow Orioles. While there, we saw a number of Archer Fish in a mangrove lined canal.

We stopped for a few hours at Jourama Falls. This area is a pretty place and it is herp rich. I always see lots along the creek in this area. It also was a good place for birds with a few of the more unusual species such as Pied Monarch, Northern Fantail, White-browed Robin, Macleay's Honeyeaters and Noisy Pittas all being heard or seen. Unfortunately, we were just a little too early to see the spectacular White-tailed Kingfisher.

Black-throated Rainbow-Skinks (Carlia rostralis) were abundant. Some of these were so tame that I could walk all around them and take shots. They completely ignored me and the flashing camera.
... male

... I think that this is a female although she looks a little different to those that I have seen before.

One of the water skinks was also common. Several of these bar-sided water skinks are possible in this area so I am not certain of the species.

Eastern Striped Skinks (Ctenotus robustus) are fairly common in grassy areas along the trail.

Eastern Water Dragons (Physignathus lesueurii) were common. This female seemed to be enjoying the cool water on a hot afternoon.

Jourama Falls is usually a good place to see Lace Monitors (Varanus varius). Ted and Andrew found one and Ted was able to take this amazing shot of one that climbed a tree near the trail. It obviously was not happy to see people in the area.

...it had relaxed when I saw it 10 minutes later but it remained in the tree.

Forest Kingfishers are pretty birds.

White-browed Robins are not so easy to find. There were a couple of pairs here that were singing along the creek in the picnic area.

Here is a nicely coloured male Brush Turkey. These birds are common near campgrounds and picnic sites.

Black-spotted Grass-Blue (Famegana alsulus)

Orange-steaked Ringlet (Hypocysta irius)

We continued south and then went night-driving along a road 100km west of Townsville. On this trip, it was incredibly quiet with no live snakes at all. We did encounter the sad sight of a freshly killed Black-headed Python. Strophurus krisalys and Gehyra variegata were the only geckos and we saw several Burton's Snake-Lizards. We camped near the Burdekin Dam and found this Echidna.

 

[richoman_3]

awesome pics
that weird spider thing is a harvestmen