On Sunday we took a trip to Wambyn which is about 1 hour east of Perth, in Wandoo country on the edge of the wheatbelt. I was hoping to get video of animals at the reserve and was lucky to find three of these beautiful big Barking Geckoes (Underwoodisaurus milii) under granite slabs.I got some of the best footage I've ever taken and hope to put it on the web soon. After shooting one latched on to my finger and wouldn't let go for about 5 minutes. Normally they are all bluff with their barking and leaping forward, but this one had a real bad attitude!
We also found a single Wheatbelt Stone Gecko (Diplodactylus granariensis) who was more interested in sleep than anything else.
A typical view of Wandoo (Eucalyptus wandoo) on the edge of the cleared wheatbelt.
Some of the wonderful and important Grasstrees (Xanthorrhoea sp.) at Wambyn, which provide a great shelter for small animals such as bats under that thick layer of dead leaves, as well as habitat in the cracked trunk when they die.
There are a number of grasstree species, with this one having a distinct separation of living and dead leaves.
They used to be called Blackboys, but that's not politically correct nowdays.
1 comment:
Hello Richard. I see you've joined my list of followers - thanks! I will return the favor. I've always had a fascination w/Australia, but don't know much about the country, and certainly not much about the wildlife, so I look forward to some education on your blog! Hope you can get the video up soon of the Barking Gecko! Also, the Grasstrees are a very interesting plant - I don't know that we have anything like it in the States.
Post a Comment