And the bush has friends to meet him, and their kindly voices greet him, In the murmur of the breezes and the river on its bars,
And he sees the vision splendid of the sunlit plains extended, And at night the wonderous glory of the everlasting stars.

Banjo Paterson (1889)

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Spiny-tailed Gecko in our garden

The past few day in Perth have been very wet and stormy. In the breaks between storms, I managed to go out to have a look at the debris in the garden and see what was living in some of the hidey-holes I've created under rocks. Under some slate slabs next to our flowering red Grevillias, I found our first Spiny-tailed Gecko (Strophurus spinigerus). These slabs usually provide shelter for our resident Marbled Geckos, so I was surprised to see a gecko with a spiny tail. He was very cold and wasn't about to run off, so we had a little photo shoot!










This beautiful guy was the orange-eyed form inornatus. I sometimes see them on fauna surveys in heathland, wandering around vegetation on overcast days. He's a welcome member to the growing list of reptiles in our garden. I hope you enjoyed him as much as I did.

3 comments:

Wai Yien said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Wai Yien said...

the 3rd photo is gorgeous, love the composition very muck. Are they a loud creature? At Taman Negara/Endau Rompin, their call are very loud and at times annoying too.

Heather said...

That's quite a handsome reptile. How lucky you are to have him in your garden!