North Queensland Winter 2022 (Part 3)
Townsville Missions (29th of June to the 1st of July)
Day 9
With the cancellation of our Bartle attempt and early arrival back in Townsville, we had three days to kill before Nick flew back to Melbourne. We were all very keen to head towards Charters for a day for two highly restricted Lerista but decided we’d have a (somewhat) rest day before more driving. Naturally, we elected to rest by having to sprint to the Maggie Island ferry not to miss it, and then spend hours climbing hills for a very minute skink. It was hot and sweaty on Maggie and the first few hours passed slowly with little to show for our efforts. No Death Adder was waiting in ambush where Justin had previously seen one, and we’d made our way up to the drier forest on the ridge tops flipping. Plenty of Carlia, both Blue-throated Rainbow Skinks (Carlia rhomboidalis) and Orange-flanked Rainbow Skinks (Carlia rubigo) were on the move and I flipped a tiny Red-naped Snake (Furina diadema) under a rock. Getting slightly warmer, Justin spied a Iridescent Litter Skink (Lygisaurus foliorum) amongst the leaf litter that had us fooled for a second. Finally, once again thanks to Justin’s rummaging, we spied a tiny skink moving amongst the leaves. Grabbing a handful of litter and moving back out onto the path, I opened my hands to look upon the magnificence of a Magnetic Island Dwarf Skink (Pygmaeascincus sadlieri). One of, if not the smallest skink in Australia, this species is restricted entirely to the island and I was rather pleased to both find one and get some passable photos. With our days goal achieved, we headed back to Justin’s for celebratory beers.
Day 10
We were off before dawn the next day with lots of kilometres to cover. I’d arranged access for our first target, the Mt Cooper Slider (Lerista vittata), which hadn’t been seen since the last survey in 2014 and required access to private property to look for, putting it very high on the target list. After about three hours of driving, very slightly more vine thickety habitat signified we’d arrived. While I was searching around for my shoes, Justin didn’t even bother with his, walking over to a little log and immediately calling “Got one!”. Incredulous, we crowded around for a quick look before Nick walked over to his first log, rolled it and found another. The pressure was on as I walked over to my first log, rolled it and combed through underneath with a rake and with a sigh of relief, uncovered our third. While the others grabbed out cameras, I quickly looked at the base of two more trees, raking out a large and perfect fourth one before settling in for photos. Four Lerista under a total of five bits of cover was a pretty perfect start to the morning and once we were all happy with our shots we piled back in Ernie for the hour long drive back along dirt to Charters for coffee and nuggets.
Caffeine addiction satisfied, I had us back on the road heading east shortly after, before turning down another station road hoping there’d be someone to talk to at the end. While it might not be the wisest choice to turn up unannounced, once we’d convinced the landowner we were the non dodgy sort and that looking for small skinks was a worthwhile venture, we were given the green light. Guiding us on his quad bike, we paddock bashed with Ernie several kilometres through the bush and down to the Rochford Scrub. Left to our own devices we continued a little deeper into the vine thicket scrub before rakes were out and we were off into the bush, with the final lined Slider of Queensland weighing on our minds. It was only fifteen minutes later Nick called out the classic “Got one” and with a sigh of relief Justin and I walked over to see our first Rochford Slider (Lerista rochfordensis). Despite having a regen, it was a well revered little skink, signifying the completion of many kilometres driven and hours raking to find all the local Lerista species. It made it even better that we were finishing it up with two of the hardest to find species, neither of which had been seen in years. Of course we weren’t totally satisfied with a regen though, so we continued raking for a while with Nick finding two more before Justin and I managed to find a joint effort one. Two with full tails was satisfactory and photos were taken, although for whatever reason I found the Rochford sliders much more frustrating to photograph. Victorious, we waved goodbye to the owner on the way out and continued back to Townsville for an early night.
Day 11
Still on a high from the day before, there was no real urgency to target anything as there wasn’t much left around Townsville we hadn’t seen. Consequently, we decided to look for two of our favourite things for our final day, a reclusive fossorial and a Phyllurus. With the fossorial Speckled Worm Skink (Praeteropus gowi) first up, we headed to some dunes behind a beach, entirely different habitat from the rocky ridge where I’d first seen them. Building up a sizable following of mosquitoes in minutes, I was very pleased when it took Justin all of five minutes to find one. Jumping in and out of the car to avoid our pesky friends for photos we were soon finished and hightailing it out of there. We spent the rest of the afternoon crawling around some rocks, finding relatively little except a Freckled Monitor (V. tristis) in a crevice and a Fine Spotted Mulch Skink (Glaphyromorphus punctulatus).
With darkness approaching we started up a creek line and after a bit of a walk we came to a lovely boulder field among the rainforest just as the light was almost gone. After a short wait, head torches were on and we were out climbing into crevices and caves looking for the Mt Elliot Leaf-tailed Gecko (Phyllurus amnicola). They were abundant, and we saw well over a dozen in about 15 minutes. Many had regens (one was also missing its entire tail) but we eventually found a couple with originals for photos. Satisfied with our efforts and walking out we also came across my 20th new species for the trip, a Sun-loving Litter-skink (Lygisaurus zuma) night active in the creek, icing on the cake.
Another successful trip completed, many tears were shed before putting Nick on the plane back to Melbourne the next day. We’d managed to find the majority of targets we were after, with the exception of some rainforest species we’d been rained out of. I’d also managed to make it to my yearly goal of 450 with the Cann’s Snake-necked Turtle (C. canni) at only the six months mark. Hopefully there’ll be some more entries soon after this one, as I have a few more things lined up for the second half of the year. Until then.
