Accidental Art

On a recent fauna survey up at Camballin in the Kimberleys, my boss' camera went a little strange, probably from the extreme heat which affected the processor. It began taking wonderful artistic pictures.

This is a picture of me at one of the trap sites. It is straight from the camera with no modifications or alterations what so ever. I really do think you could have a good art exhibition with some of the photos!

To The Top of Mt Kinabalu

My wife Liz and I are almost ready for our my Christmas/New Year wildlife adventure. This year it's wildlife-watching in North Queensland and a birding trip to the top of Cape York and islands off the coast of New Guinea.

Last year it was birding in Sabah Borneo, with one of the highlights being, finally seeing a group of the elusive Bornean Bristleheads. One of my wife's highlights was also climbing to the top of Mt Kinabalu by herself. I thought in honour of that achievement almost one year ago, I would put up some pictures of that event.

The goal, to climb up Mt Kinabalu (4101 m) to the small point on top in the middle. The highest peak between the Himalayas and New Guinea.

My wife and her mountain guide Miak ready to begin the two day journey. I'm laughing because I don't have to go! I can stay down here and do some birding.




About 3/4 up the mountain, the overnight stop at the Laban Rata guesthouse, with an early start at 3 am to begin the final journey in darkness to the top.






The rainforest is far below and only the toughest high altitude plants survive, till higher up there is only rock.

One cold but happy Liz. Been to the top, now for the long journey back down.



Low's Peak (4101 m)

Spectacular views and rock formations.

Kinabalu conquered and a happy wife with secret plans for Everest Base Camp, Mt Kilimanjaro etc......

Barking Geckos

With the Western Australian summer here, the temperatures are too hot to find our garden and local geckos just under sheets of tin or thin slabs of rock. Most are now deeper down in cracks or under larger rock outcrops.

Here is a video I took of a Barking Gecko when temperatures were cooler and geckos could sometimes still be found moving in the early morning.







These beautiful Barking Geckos (Underwoodisaurus milli) are found over most of southern Australia. They are one of the two species of thick-tailed geckos found in Australia. They are called barking geckos because of their threat display, where they lunge forward, raise their body and yelp and hiss.

They grow to 17cm and have a wonderful fat tail, especially if it has been a good season, but can quickly drop it if you pick them up. These geckos can also give you a good nip and not let go, if you get your finger too close. There was one time where I had to sit for ten minutes with a gecko attached to my hand, before he decided to let go and went his way.

They look very similar to the nine species of Knob-tailed Geckos found in Australia and will shortly (or already) be placed in the Nephurus genus.

The Quacking Frogs of Winter

Well, summer is here in Perth with temperatures reaching 37 and higher ones expected soon. Most of the creeks near our home have dried up and only the large ones with granite outcrops have pools of water in them. The Quacking Frogs (Crinia georgiana) of winter have gone quiet, with only the local tree frogs calling from the better-watered gardens in the street.

Here is a video I took of Quacking Frogs a few months ago when the streams were flowing.





A little info about them. The Quacking Frog or also called Tschudi's Froglet, is a common frog found in creeks and swamps around Perth, Western Australia. The colour and pattern variations on individuals are incredible. The best way to identify these frogs is to look for the gold or red eyelids and red markings on the inner thighs, and the loud 'quack' call.

New Holland Honeyeater

Seeing that due to a computer hard-drive crash that has wiped out all of my video editng programs, I may not be able to place videos on the web for a while, I thought I would put on a few I made some months ago.




These noisy New Holland Honeyeaters (Phylidonyris novaehollandiae) spend the year in our garden feeding on all our nectar-producing plant, such as the red Grevilleas in the video. They tend to breed at almost any time of the year and this spring I found a nice little cup-shaped nest in one of our large pot plants.





One of young New Holland Honeyeaters, probably only about a week or two out of the nest. These honeyeaters are usually in little groups and keep a watch out for the goshawks and falcons that often cruise over the garden.





They are an aggressive honeyeater and often drive away other birds, especially smaller honeyeaters from the nectar plants in the garden.

Camballin Fauna Survey

Well, another blog post after being away in the southwest Kimberleys at Camballin for two weeks, down south of Perth for a fauna clearing and a computer crash that wiped out the hard-drive.

This was our camp at Camballin for about two weeks. A basic public camping area on the Fitzroy River about 2 hours east of Derby, with fly nets as home, a small caravan as kitchen and 42 degree temperatures most days.

The Camballin Barrage Dam, one of our main washing and water obtaining areas while at camp. At night with a light you could see all the Freshwater Crocodile eyes shining. It seems that there would be no reason why you could not get to big Saltwater Crocodiles below the dam!

The story goes that you should not go to the same spot at rivers up north, because the saltwater croc, the first time he sees you, second time he plans, third time he gets you!

A story also goes that the northern Aborigines, if they did cross in the same spot a number of times, would cross a river with the old people going last, because the croc would usually grab the last person. If you lost an old person, it was no big deal!

One of the many beautiful Boab trees in the survey area. These trees when in flower are one of the best place to see birds, with many of the nectar-feeding birds, like honeyeaters feeding here all day.

The small silvery acacias had huge amounts of seed pods, attracting large numbers of cockatoo and parrot species.

We caught over 40 species of reptiles in the survey area. This is one of the beautiful small burrowing snakes of the Kimberley area, a Northern Shovel-nosed Snake (Brachyurophis roperi).

Another nice inhabitant of the area, often found basking on fence posts as you drive along fencelines. A Central Netted Dragon (Ctenophorus nuchalis), who managed to give a good nip to a finger when being caught!

Once caught, he's happy just to sit around and get some more warmth.

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.