The Great WA Raking Trip (Part 3)
Hamelin to Laverton (6th - 9th of September)
Day 8
The morning dawned with little improvement from the previous night, and I spent the first hour of my birthday huddled in the camp kitchen trying to avoid frostbite. Once we’d finally roused Justin and packed away our damp camp gear we headed further south for what would assuredly be an awesome day of raking. The herp gods wouldn’t deny me a smithi on such a date surely? We started off with an attempt at some slightly easier targets and although a Stripe-tailed Monitor (V. caudolineatus) again failed to make an appearance, we did come across several Slender Broad-blazed Slider (L. uniduo), Blinking Broad-blazed Slider (L. connivens), some absolutely monster Unpatterned Robust Sliders (L. macropisthopus) and a small Marble-faced Delma (Delma australis). Continuing southwards and swapping to yellow sand, we made a foray down some tracks for a more poorly known Slider, the Taper-tailed West-coast Slider (Lerista humphriesi). Despite being in some lovely habitat we only produced a ridiculous number of the similar but much more widespread Blunt-tailed West-coast Slider (Lerista praepedita) and a single Patternless Robust Slider (L. miopus). Despite wanting to see the species pretty badly, we threw in the towel to maximise our time looking for smithi and continued onwards.
The fellas then put in a monster effort investigating every promising looking spoil and log for the rest of the day to try and turn up a smithi, but unfortunately to no avail. We were all a little surprised considering how good the conditions were and Nick’s speedy success with the other species. Other herps were around though, with Nick spotting several Lozenge-marked Dragons (Ctenophorus scutulatus) in a small area, which had disappeared when I walked through moments later (he msut have chased them away). I found the fattest Narrow-banded Shovel-nosed Snake (Brachyurophis fasiolatus) deep in some wet sand and saw a handful of Barred Wedgesnout Ctenotus (Ctenotus schomburgkii) which were nice to see in a new part of the country. Justin arguably pulled through the strongest with a wonderfully stringy Black-naped Burrowing Snake (Narophis bimaculatus) and a rarely seen Murchison Blind Snake (Anilios leptosoma) that was exceptionally tiny. Collectively we also raked uncountable numbers of Blunt-tailed West-coast Sliders (L. praepedita), a species we were now all too familiar with. With darkness falling and no uplifting pub feed possible, we headed south to camp closer to Kalbarri.
Day 9
Our strategic camp site positioned us right next to some tin and other rubbish and after shaking off the icicles we were off to explore. I quickly found a Fraser’s Delma (Delma fraseri) followed by an Excitable Delma (Delma tincta), while Nick uncovered several Checker-sided Ctenotus (Ctenotus mimetes). The hail mary for a Gilled Slender Bluetongue (Cyclodomorphus branchialis) didn’t pay off but we couldn’t complain with some Delma and a new Ctenotus, and after some photos the team beelined for the Kalbarri bakery. Our next stop was for the final possible attempt at a smithi, and we set out into the white sand hopefully (I wasn’t that hopeful at this point). Probably predictably, our efforts were for naught except several Elegant Sliders (L. elegans) and some active Spotted Military Dragons (Ctenophorus maculatus).
Not ones to take defeat easily, we swapped spots to search for the Batavia Coast Worm-lizard (Aprasia clairae) at some of the most northerly locations it had been recorded at. We spent much of the afternoon raking spoils and searching limestone and it was really starting to feel depressing at this point, with most of two days now spent searching and failing to find the two worm lizards. Our only compensation came in the form of more L. praepedita (which we were now thoroughly sick of) and several Shinglebacks (Tiliqua rugosa). Giving up on clairae, we headed back to town for the loo and then off into some nearby scrub for a final evening rake. The habitat seemed good for Aprasia, although we weren’t sure for which species. I was pretty buggered and decided to look for things I seemed capable of finding and proceeded to find a single Dark Broad-blazed Slider (L. kendricki). Nick, the absolute maniac, wasn’t having any of it and at the last possible second pulled out his sixth individual Aprasia of the trip. Even cooler, it seemed to be a slight range extension (or at least the first recorded in a long time in the area) for the Batavia Coast Worm-lizard (Aprasia clairae). Feeling much happier we took our pics and headed to the pub for a well earned feed. The find even sustained us for the night time drive down to Geraldton area, with the wet conditions bringing out several Neos (Neobatrachus kunapulari?) and a Western Banjo Frog (Limnodynastes dorsalis) before we set up camp.
Day 10
I woke up the next morning praying that our Aprasia magnet had sorted out whatever glitches had led to us missing smithi, as we had one final day of proper Aprasia targeting to go. With Up & Go’s in hand and Nick in the lead, we headed out to see if we could find a proper A. clairae in the vicinity of Geraldton. Reptiles seemed numerous, and we quickly found a Marble-faced Delma (D. australis), several Fraser’s Delma (D. fraseri), a minute Southern Shovel-nosed Snake (Brachyurophis semifasciatus) and a young Western Brown Snake (Pseudonaja mengdeni), but no Aprasia. Abandoning the area, we swung through Geraldton for some maccas and started to head inland.
Our final Aprasia target (we were definitely kidding ourselves that we’d put in a proper effort for picturata) for the trip was the exceptionally restricted and poorly known Wicherina Worm-lizard (Aprasia wicherina). We set out with the rakes at some appropriate heath and spent the next hour investigating spoils. I’m pretty sure Justin took an extended loo break and Nick was who knows where while I got distracted with some nice stacks of cut veg and pipe dreams of Pletholax. Fortunately, my second Jan’s Banded Snake (Simoselaps bertholdi) snapped me out of it and after refinding Nick, we went back to some promising spoils I’d seen before. The two of us toiled along next to each other, leap frogging along the line, as I was desperate for Nick not to find this last species. The herp gods are cruel mistresses though and as I found my third or so heart attack inducing Blunt-tailed West-coast Slider (L. praepedita) a metre to the left of him, Nick calmly stated “Got one” and pointed to the prize in the sand. Bastard. Nevertheless stoked, we finally tracked down Justin from his miscellaneous adventures and set about getting photos.
With no time to waste we hit the road again on the trail of the Yuna Broad-blazed Slider (Lerista yuna). En route, Justin hit a wild u-turn for his first Thorny Devil (Moloch horridus), a species I did not expect to find so close to the coast. After admiring it for the appropriate amount of time (and saving it from the next landcruiser), we returned to the original mission and arrived at yet more sandy woodland. Finding the target took a while among some questionably replaced leaf litter, but eventually Nick once again produced the goods and we hightailed it out of there for Yalgoo (but not before one final, desperate 15 min rake for a smithi).
I hadn’t quite realised how tiny Yalgoo was and with our hopes for a pub meal dashed, we headed to some red sand to cook up some dinner. With chef Justin in the kitchen I set about trying to find what we’d been directed there for, the Midline Knob-tailed Gecko (Nephrurus vertebralis). But for whatever reason, the area seemed almost devoid of reptiles and after putting in a serious effort I only came away with several Western Spiny-tailed Geckos (S. strophurus), Western Tree Gehyras (Gehyra variegata), and Western Beaked Geckos (Rhynchoedura ornata). Zoz must have set us up. Raking also proved unproductive and after flipping a couple of Stern Ctenotus (Ctenotus severus) and Bynoes Geckos (Heteronotia binoei) we were exhausted and called it a night.
Day 11
We weren’t quite done with the Yalgoo area the next morning, with two Lerista targets and hail mary for a Spotted Mulga (Pseudechis butleri). Flipping tin unsurprisingly failed to produce said elapid, although Justin did find another Rosen’s Snake (Suta fasciata) and each of us produced a Bold-striped Robust Slider (Lerista gerrardii). Partially successful, we decided to continue our nichollsi search closer to Mt Magnet and continued eastwards. One quick stop for non-Lerista targets resulted in a beautiful black Gidgee Skink (Egernia stokesii) which stubbornly refused to give us a better look as well as a glimpse of an enormous Woodland Morethia (Morethia butleri) (they’re seriously large for a Morethia), before we arrived at some unremarkable roadside trees for Lerista’ing. Iced coffeeless and unenthused with the spot I did little but wander around. Justin and Nick, however, found a few nice trees and eventually emerged with several of our final Broad-blazed Slider, the OG, the Inland Broad-blazed Slider (Lerista nichollsi). Hooray.
The remainder of the daylight hours were spent on the (relatively) long haul to Laverton. Massive burgers were had at Mt Magnet, along with a brief foray for Ornate Rock Dragons (Ctenophorus ornatus) that produced only Western Ring-tailed Dragons (Ctenophorus caudicinctus), but otherwise the day passed slowly. Revitalised by a surprisingly good parmi in Leonora, we spent several stops attempting to find Midline Knob-tailed Geckos (N. vertebralis), again to no success and with only a couple of Mottled Ground Geckos (Lucasium squarrosum) as consolation. Swapping tactics, we stopped at a low ridge where Justin immediately found a Western Shield Spiny-tailed Gecko (Strophurus wellingtonae) that took an embarrassingly long time for our sleep-deprived group intelligence to identify. Justin continued to spotlight around the base while Nick and I went off flipping. A miracle Black-headed Worm-lizard (Aprasia picturata) unsurprisingly failed to materialise, although the rocks looked surprisingly good during our ten minute adventure. We returned to find Justin with another gecko I was keen to see, the Fine-faced Gecko (Diplodactylus pulcher) and after that moderate success we continued past Laverton to our planned camp site.
