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)

Friday, October 9, 2009

Koolan Island

I just got back from a week long fauna survey on Koolan Island, it's located about 130 km north of Derby in the Kimberley region. A fantastic place. A 10 km long sandstone and iron ore island in a aqua coloured sea, surrounded by dozens more orange-red islands.




It was a fairly small survey area, but we still managed to trap and record over 40 local species of animals. Thanks to Jess, one of the minesite environmental officers, these are a couple of photos of a really nice speciemen of a Ctenotus inornatus.



These skinks are found over most of the Kimberley region and were the most common large skinks on Koolan Island.