G'day,

 

Been a busy little while for me, not much in the way of wildlife to report though.

Here in the Whitsundays we have had a flood. The main street of Airlie was underwater.

 

The town of Finch Hatton to the southwest was hit hardest. Wazza from Platypus Bush Camp lost everything.

Before the flood I managed some shots of a Cockatoo feeding on the fruits of a rainforest palm:

 

Understandably the frogs have enjoyed the rain.

 

This is a massive female Striped Rocket Frog (Litoria nasuta.)

 

And a Eastern Dwarf Tree Frog (Litoria fallax.)

 

This is a tiny Ornate Burrowing Frog (Opisthodon ornatus)

 

For the last three years I was sure I could hear the calls of Spotted Marsh Frogs

(Limnodynastes tasmaniensis) but could only get a glimpse of them, never enough

for ID. I finally caught one. Like the several I had seen briefly, it was very small,

just over half the size of normal representatives of the same species in Victoria.

Southern individuals also usually boast an orange stripe down their backs.

 

Skinks have been active too. Carlia skinks have been in their best dress for

breeding. This is a male Carlia pectoralis.

This is a female.

 

This skink ran across the road. Scott Eipper identified it as Glaphymorphus

punctuatus. Cute but snappy. A bird had taken the tail-tip. It will grow back