Working herping

[jedi_339]

Alrighty, here's another one for you guys,

after a recent trip to Roma(ish) for work, I thought I'd post some of the pictures I took, a few slightly more intersting herps from west of the great divide.

Ramotypholps affinis


Cryptoblepharus australis


Morethia boulengari


Lerista fragilis


Litoria caerulea



Oedura rhombifer



and a scenery shots (poorly auto stitched camera shot)




caught a few other things like bynoes and gehyra dubia but mostly didn't bother taking pictures of them.

and on a final note, these were all handled with the correct permits for work purposes incase anyone asks

 

[NaughtyByNature]

Great photos , thanks for sharing

 

[GeckPhotographer]

Nice photos, lucky find with that blindsnake really awesome those guys.

 

[jedi_339]

I've found a couple through work, including one species from WA, the only problem is trying to get anything even close to a good picture, they hate being out of their nice dark environment, that little guy didn't stop moving so I gave up after a minute of trying to snap a good picture of the sclalation.

 

[Scribble_pants]

thanks for sharing!

 

[GeckPhotographer]

I find if you get them to curl up on themselves sort of in a knot that works best. Although I had absolutely zero luck with the one Ramphotyphlops waitii I saw in WA. The R.nigrescens I get here are much more cooperative.

 

[SteveNT]

Goodonya. Nice subjects and nice pics. I love blind snakes, there's a heap of undescribeds in Arnhem Land.

Thanks for sharing.

 

[Smithers]

Kool buncha critters there, I should get outside n have a look round

 

[jedi_339]

Thanks guys,

I've had no luck getting them to curl into a ball as yet, I have however had one head straight through the seams on the calico catch bag luckily there was someone walking behind me so they saw him drop out, surprisingly enough even one of the Lerista fragilis managed to find their way through the seams on the bag :lol:

I'm not surprised by that Steve, there are some rugged and seemingly untouched areas in Australia, especially for a reptile as cryptic as the blind snakes.

I always find it enjoyable ending up in a new area and then trying to work out what the species are, you get that extra bit excited

 

[GeckPhotographer]

Yeah not surprised lots of these are undescribed, they do tend to get out of pretty much anything, bloody escape artists.

 

[ianinoz]

Love the photos - excellent closeups.

Don't mind telling us what gear you are using.

Those blind worm snakes / or are they legless blind worm lizards ? are amazing creatures, used to occasionally find them when I was flipping for skinks when I was a kid. They disappear down their tunnel in the ground like greased lightning.

Those little skinks are fabulous and very beautiful. Love watching the little guys I get in my yard and garden, my garage and under my house. They so delicate if I catch one to take a closer look I'm aways very gentle in how I handle them - wouldn't want to injure those little legs or cause some other serious injury by accident. I tend to use an empty large plastic takeaway food tub to catch them and slip a piece of cardboard between the lizard and the ground. (Works a treat with runaway medium and large crickets and wild cockroaches in the flower bed too).

Much nicer free for them to run around and just do their lizard things.

 

[snakeluvver]

Those blind worm snakes / or are they legless blind worm lizards ? are amazing creatures, used to occasionally find them when I was flipping for skinks when I was a kid. They disappear down their tunnel in the ground like greased lightning.

You may have seen legless worm skinks when you were a kid, theyre like smaller, lizard versions of blind snakes (the ones in the pics are blind snakes, the lerista one is a lizard)

 

[jedi_339]

Love the photos - excellent closeups.

Don't mind telling us what gear you are using.

Surprisingly enough I'm just using my little pentax waterproof point and shoot, It's an Optio W90.

I've read many a review saying it's the worst camera ever made etc etc, but it does the job nicely on macro's so I've been quite happy with it.

 

[Angil]

Love the pics, they look amazing. Must have been a blast finding them all

 

[ianinoz]

You may have seen legless worm skinks when you were a kid, theyre like smaller, lizard versions of blind snakes (the ones in the pics are blind snakes, the lerista one is a lizard)

You may be right there. Was many many many many moons ago (over 40 years ago), I do remember they had a spike on the end of their tail and they were quite colourful and did lots of tongue flicking.

 

[GeckPhotographer]

Spike on the end of the tail sounds like a blindsnake for me. Was this near where you live now Ian? The Blindsnake in your area is pictured in my thread (http://www.aussiepythons.com/forum/field-herping-reptile-studies-5373/past-weeks-herping-172093/)

 

[jedi_339]

Love the pics, they look amazing. Must have been a blast finding them all

It wasn't too bad, but work is still work