Autumn 2021 (Vic/Part 2)
Canberra to Canberra via Melbourne (12th-14th)
Day 10
Trading the warmer days in the north for chillier ones in the south wouldn’t be my regular go to choice but there was a couple of frogs I wanted to see in the Melbourne area. Shooting down in the morning I arrived at Nick’s a little after midday and we continued west to the Grampians. So to, it seemed, had every other tourist in the state, with Halls Gap absolutely swarming with people on arrival. Deciding to hide from them as well as we possibly could, we disappeared into the bush in an effort to find one of the local Mountain Dragons (Rankinia diemensis) but without luck. Accepting defeat, we drove back into the one pub and settled in for a quick beer and waited for dark.
It was still twilight when we headed down to where we thought we could come across some Southern Smooth Froglets (Geocrinia laevis) and we weren’t disappointed, hearing several dozen calling from a single reedy patch. While Geocrinia might typically require a little bit of triangulation when calling in lower densities, several could be easily found by gently opening each reed tussock. An easy find and relatively simple photography session had us in good spirits and it wasn’t even fully dark.
Travelling back east, we decided to call into a nearby swamp with many records of the other Victorian Geocrinia species, the Victorian Smooth Froglet (Geocrinia victoriana). Once again, many males could be heard calling as soon as we left the car. Quietly approaching them, we uncovered several in the leaf litter in a matter of minutes and the cameras and flashes were out again. The males were so intent on calling for mates they even began calling from the leaf litter directly underneath me as I lay down photographing one. Talk about horny. Very happy with what had been some very easy frogging, Nick and I sped back east to spend the night in beds and not camping.
Day 11
While I had primarily come down to Melbourne for three frog species, two of which we’d managed to find the previous night, the Melbourne area also has several skinks I was keen on seeing. We started the day with a short detour to a local grassland. A recent grass fire pretty much snubbed our chance of finding one of the local Tussock Skinks (Pseudemoia pagenstecheri), but one silly individual was still found hiding under some rudimentary cover. Unfortunately, it was all but completely missing it’s tail so we left it be without photos. Leaving the grassland behind, we headed south-east to the Mornington Peninsula.
Catching up with two more herpers, we spent the rest of the day poking around several areas searching for skinks and snakes. Although one species I was keen on re-seeing, the Swamp Skink (Lissolepis coventry) remained elusive, we did better on the snake front, with numerous White-lipped Snakes (Drysdalia coronoides) and two Eastern Small-eyed Snakes (Cryptophis nigrescens) found sheltering under debris. Other species of skinks were also found, including my last Pseudemoia species, the Glossy Swamp Skink (Pseudemoia rawlinsoni) along with several Eastern Three-lined Skinks (Acritoscincus duperreyi). A pretty decent haul considering it was mid Autumn at this point.
With daylight fading, we honed in on one of the closeby areas known for Southern Toadlets (Pseudophryne semimarmorata) and began our search in a relatively dry bog. A few could be heard calling over the wind and two were eventually found within their damp, grassy abodes and we set about photographing them. The individual I tried with was easily within my top five most frustrating subjects I’ve attempted to get a shot of and some colourful language was used. No doubt the frog realised the error of its ways after we left him back in his hole. Happy with seeing and hearing a couple but rather frustrated with the photography side of things we set about discussing our next move. While we’d managed to find all the frogs I’d originally planned to look for, it was barely 7 pm and heading back to Nick’s for a long sleep didn’t feel the right way to end the trip. Everyone else was in agreement and so we jumped back in the cars and shot east.
With a necessary stop for Dare’s and to pile everyone into a singular car, we arrived at our destination in the foothills of the great divide close to three hours later. After becoming extremely frustrated with one Pseudophryne species, naturally we were here to look for another. The Dendy’s Toadlet (Pseudophryne dendyi) forms part of the problematic Bibron’s complex but the ones where we currently were could sport a stunning amount of yellow. Our first dam stop failed to yield any, although several Victorian Smooth Froglets (Geocrinia victoriana) and a few Southern Brown Tree Frogs (Litoria ewingii) were found while investigating. Moving onto another roadside ditch and rolling down the car windows, we were met with the typical eep call of Pseudophryne. Jumping out and triangulating them we found several with varying splotches of yellow, by far one of the prettiest frogs I’ve seen. Fortunately, they were slightly more cooperative then the earlier Southern Toadlets and after a while battling the mosquitoes, I walked away with much more satisfactory photos. Turning back west, we headed back for Melbourne and a late night, arriving back at Nick’s around 2:30 in the morning.
A relatively early morning the next day saw me back on the mind-numbing freeway heading for Canberra and the conclusion of another trip. As always, more lizards await.
