Hi everyone,
So over the weekend just gone (1st/2nd September) my mate Jordan was in Perth for a few days after a week in the Pilbara. Initially our plan was to head into the Perth hills to do a bit of birding around Victoria Reservoir as part of our "photographic birding big year" ( a friendly facebook competition to see how many bird species you can photograph in 12 months). Sadly the conditions for birding were appalling, lots of rain, horrible glare from the overcast sky and quite a bit of wind!
We arrived at Victoria Reservoir at 6:30am and right away bumped into a flock of Carnabys Cockatoos feeding high in the trees.
Carnabys Cockatoos
This early in the morning the boom gates were locked and we needed to walk along the main access road, this turned out to be quite productive with many small honeyeaters darting between the roadside vegetation. We also got caught glimpse of the a Common Bronzewing sitting high in one of trees which thankfully sat very still and pretended we weren't there.
Common Bronzewing
As we began the walking track down to the dam wall, we managed to locate a a Southern Blind Snake (Ramphotyphlops australis) beneath a rock. Blind snakes are quite a cryptic species and it's unusual to find them just by looking beneath debris so this was a good herpetological start to the day and was also a new species for Jordans reptile list. I might add that these can a right pain in neck to take photos of and also exude one of the worst smells in nature :/
Southern Blind Snake (Ramphotyphlops australis)
As we moved down the path closer to the dam wall the New Holland Honeyeaters were everywhere but managing to get a good photo proved to be quite a frustrating task and in the end I gave up in a fit of photographical rage. Down near the dam wall the birding was rather quiet, more New Holland Honeyeaters, a few Brown Honeyeaters, Spotted Pardalotes, a singular Ringneck Parrot, some very wary Red-capped Parrots and this Grey Shrike-thrush.
Grey Shrike-thrush
At this point we could see a large rain shower heading our way so decided to quickly head back to the car but not before snapping a few shots of a Splendid Fairywren and Scarlet Robin that poked their heads out of the bush!
Scarlet Robin
Splendid Fairywren
We made the decision at this point that as we hadn't been that lucky with birds and that the conditions were terrible for photography that we would head out to some bushland near Mundaring to see if there were any frogs about. Within 5 minutes of reaching our site we had several species photographed including:
Sand-plain Worm-lizard (Aprasia repens)
Red-thighed Froglet (Crinia georgiana)
Clawless Gecko (Crenadactylus ocellatus)
Tree Dtella hind foot (Gehyra variegata)
Closeup of the hind foot of the Tree Dtella, the horizontal white lines are known as the subdigital lamellae.
This is the smallest species of Australian skinks, this one was roughly 4cm long!
Along with the interesting reptiles and amphibians there were also a number of orchids about, the two below belong to the genus Caladenia. South-west WA is one of the worlds biodiversity hotspots and is home to over 150 species of orchids!
Spider Orchid (Caladenia sp.)
By this time the rain had truly set it and we decided to head back to Perth. As we drove home the thought of coming back that night to do some frogging brought up and some new plans were devised! With a quick detour to pick up a crazy biologist friend Magnus, we headed back into the hills determined to find some of the WA endemic Heleioporus frogs that occur within the region. True to form, within 30 seconds of beginning our search we were rewarded with a huge Hooting Frog (Heleioporus barycragus) who was willing to sit nicely for a few photos.
Hooting Frog (Heleioporus barycragus)
Hooting Frog (Heleioporus barycragus)
Not long after we managed to find another Heleioporus species that appears to be a hybrid between two species H. eyrei and H. albopunctatus (more ID photos come soon!)
The mystery Helio!
After more searching just turned up more Crinia, we decided to head further up the road to a spot that Magnus knew of, again within 30 seconds of leaving the car we found a heap of these large Litoria moorei or Motorbike Frogs!
Motorbike Frog
The last species found that night was the quite small Slender tree Frog (Litoria adelaidensis), this one was quite drab looking and didn't have as much green as some of the other ones that I've seen. Hopefully the next outing will produce a nicer coloured one!
Slender Tree Frog
If you made it this far than thanks for having a read! There will be a new post going up soon that details my trip to Tasmania over Christmas with a few mates to go and find one of Australia's rarest birds, the Orange-bellied Parrot!
Cheers
Chris
