Long time no blog!!!! Since Mum is lazy, I (Kahleana) am having to update this blog with all the exciting things the Stannards have been up to since the last post.
Ron, Sue and Charlotte headed up to Julatten at the end of June to have a few relaxing weeks in Julatten before returning to the hustle and bustle of Lockhart. They didn't do anything very interesting during that time so no photos. I, Kahleana, arrived at the beginning of July to do some serious herping while on holidays.
The herping started in Julatten with a night walk around Kingfisher Park and home on the night before we left to head up to Lockhart again. The night started slow with a few Barn Owls and some frogs before picking up when we got to the orchard. There we found two Striped Possums feeding on a flowering tree.
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| Striped Possum |
After the possum we tried to stalk some platypus but to no avail. On the way back we found a lovely big Northern Leaf-tailed Gecko (
Saltuarius cornutus) perched on the side of a tree.
We also had some interesting wildlife visitors at home with the most photogenic of these being two little hand raised Buff banded rails named William and Kate. There were also the usual bats residing under the house.
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| One of the little Royals |
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| Little Bentwing Bat |
On Friday the 7th, the Stannards packed up early and began the long drive up the Cape to Lockhart. No interesting photos were taken on the journey as not many interesting creatures stayed still enough for photo opportunities.
Saturday the 8th brought some excitement after a quick visit to the ranger base to grill the ranger on the locations of some creatures high on my list on things to see. The regular afternoon walk produced a new reptile for my list, one that I had been wanting to see for a very long time. A Burton's Legless Lizard.
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| Burton's Legless Lizard |
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| Happiness at finding one |
Unfortunately, it later turned out this particular individual was injured and couldn't move anything but its head. I tried for a few days to nurture it back to health but in the end I had to take the humane path and put it down.
The next day Mum and I went for a drive to look for more wildlife and to stalk some butterflies. Wildlife was on the slow side but there were plenty of butterflies including a Cape York Aeroplane and Orange Bushbrown.
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| Cape York Aeroplane |
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| Orange Bushbrown |
Due to the disappointing result of the day we headed out that night for a night spot. We started at Gordon Creek camp 2 and made our way up to Gordon creek camp 1 along the road on foot. Not more than 5minutes into our walk I spotted a Green Python (Morelia viridis) curled up on a branch in strike position waiting for dinner.
The family had a short trip to the Claudie waterfall which was quite low due to the lack of rain. I also ticked off a new reptile, an endemic skink.
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| Carlia rimula |
Not much happend after that, there were a few trips to the beach to collect shells but no interesting wildlife. Sick of this boredom Charlotte and I went to the the beach to see the remains of the plane that crash landed on the beach. Mum detailed this in a previous post but we would like to add our two cents. We left at 3pm to catch the low tide and started our 30minute walk from the barge landing at Quintell to the site of the plane. At this point the wind was blowing about 40knots and walking was difficult and sandy and unpleasant.
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| Very windy, titanic style |
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That night we again went night spotting in search of green pythons and giant tree geckoes which were amazingly more elusive than the pythons. We started at the Old Coen Road Track which produced only a giant cane toad (nicknamed Toad Zilla) and an Australian Wood Frog (Rana daemeli).
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| Also there were snails, very large snails |
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| Australian Wood Frog |
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| Toad Zilla and my foot | | |
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We moved onto Cook's hut to look for pythons and geckoes. Instead we found more Wood Frogs and a little White Tail Rat checking out the toilets.
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| Wood Frog |
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| White Tail Rat |
On the road back to Lockhart we came across another snake I was hoping to see while up here, a Brown Headed Snake (Furina tristis). However, on closer inspection we found it had been run over and was dead. Just around the corner was another Brown Headed Snake, run over again but only partially so it was still moving its head. A sorrowful mercy killing later and we headed home in low spirits.
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| Note the pretty tyre tracks on its back |
We are almost at the conclusion of this epic, which will bring this blog to the present. Last night we went out ot dinner at the Portland Roads cafe, Out of the Blue. On the way we stopped by at Weymouth Bay to help Dad survey the area for his census duties. Needless to say it was very windy but a nice area.
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| See how windy it is, Mum's wrinkles are nearly flat |
After dinner we found a small Spotted Python hanging in the rafters of the cafe, which for the record so everyone knows is a Spotted Python (Antaresia maculosa) not as many people want to believe, a Children's Python (Antaresia childreni). This was the first of three snakes for the night and one white lip.
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| SPOTTED PYTHON |
On the way home we found the cutest little Scrub Python (Morelia kinghorni) crossing the road. It was very skinny but close to a metre in length.
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| Having a little snuggle |
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| Cute little Scrub Python |
On the way back through the rainforest section we had a little look around but no green pythons on the side of the road. Giving up all hope we headed off home only to find a large green python crossing the road near the Coen Road turnoff. This makes green python number three for the year.
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| Having a little snuggle |
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| Heading off into the trees |
So, after all that this has been the events of the last two weeks up in Lockhart River. Hope you enjoy reading it all =D
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