November 08 - Tully and Paluma revisited

On Friday night, we were driving up the evil hill to Paluma- a hotspot for head-on collisions when near the top, I noticed an object wriggling over the road. Slamming the brakes on I leapt out and picked it up. It was a medium sized Pink Tongued Skink Cyclodomorphus gerrardi.

This skink is found from North QLD to NSW. It's not a fast lizard- then again it only has to catch up with snails. I have seen several of these, and never managed to catch one, as they have a habit of sliding between nearby rocks before I can reach them. Juveniles are strongly banded like a tiger, but most adults become rather plain.

Arriving at Paluma itself, I looked along one of the small creeks for frogs and found one of the usual suspects- the Green Eyed Tree Frog - Litoria genimaculata. This is one we share with New Guinea. It's a stream-dweller that lives in the vegetation and sits on rocks by day- extremely well camouflaged. By night males call for females. The call is very quiet as the males lack a vocal sac- that bubble of skin used to amplify calls. The call itself is a gentle "tocking."

In the morning, after being woken up by Spotted Catbirds and Victoria's Riflebirds, we drove to Birthday Creek.

In attendance was a Tooth Billed Bowerbird, yelling his little head off over his cleared patch of forest- every leaf and twig removed on his stage, and replaced with fresh green ones. The Tooth Billed Bowerbird has an incredible voice- able to mimic many bird calls almost like a Lyrebird. However, I have already got loads of shots of this species and sound recordings. Images are on my website.

A Golden Bowerbird was adding white Sarcochilus orchid flowers to his garden on his bower, hoping for a passing female. Ignoring us, he called his whirring hissing call and continued collecting and re-arranging.

At Birthday Creek Falls, I noticed a cluster of Bulbophyllum newportii orchids. These tiny (5mm) flowers were not easy to see, but I took a load of pictures, as they look pretty cool.

Also there was a native Cymbidium - Cymbidium canaliculatum.

Next, we drove down the hill, stopping off at Little Crystal Ck on the way. A Boyd's Forest Dragon, as if riding an invisible bicycle ran over the road and into the bush. A major goal to photograph, but do you think he could be found in the dense vines and trees when I looked?

Anyway, the waterfalls once again didn't disappoint. Last time, I found a weird tadpole with a slender, muscly body and massive disc for a mouth while I was snorkelling. One of two frog species it could have been- both are rare and endangered. Confirming my suspicions, I found an adult - a Waterfall Frog (Litoria nannotis) sitting on a Coke bottle some idiot had thrown into the waterfall with the rest of the rubbish. Usually seen in pairs, this one and its partner dashed deep under a boulder. I went after them for some pictures. Water was running off the rock above and dripping- creating a fascinating effect.

The first female Green Eyed Tree Frog I have seen clung to the roof of the boulder I was under. She was massive, 80-90mm long!

Next stop was Tully Gorge.

Not much new to share, although we found a few snakes:

1 dead Common Tree Snake - Bright blue in colour

4 Brown Tree Snakes - Alive, but I have plenty of pictures of these

The Jungle Python (Morelia spilota cheynei) is restricted to the Wet Tropics (1/1000th of Australia's land area,) and apparently only a small part of this zone. I have been to Tully many times and the closest I have come to a Jungle Python was a hybrid with an Eastern Carpet Python (they are both variants of the same species anyway.) You can see that snake on my welcome page. I was pretty happy, even when it fastened its jaws around my hand! It was photographed and quickly released. More images to come on the site.