Another successful field trip

Had the weekend away up in the vicinity of Smith's Lake - I normally go up there a couple of times a year and spend some time frogging, herping, insecting, birding etc. and generally see at least something of note. The trip this time was particularly noteworthy for two quite interesting reptiles.


The first was this dragon - the southern forest or angle-headed dragon (Hypsilurus spinipes). I'd never seen one of these before so was stoked to discover it in a patch of rainforest. It's a species that can be quite hard to spot due to its good camouflague and arboreal habits, luckily this one was just at knee-height clinging to a small tree-trunk.


The second reptile of note was a rough-scaled snake (Tropidechis carinatus), another 'lifer'* for me. This snake is known to be very venomous and is known to have caused human mortalities. We came across this individual sitting on a palm-frond just beside a pond - it's likely that it was sitting in wait for a frog to hop past.



This is the red-eyed treefrog (Litoria chloris). Only when it rains a lot does this species suddenly appear, breed, and disappear again. I suspect it lives the majority of its life in the canopy. Luckily we had some good rain and a few individuals showed up despite the somewhat cool temperatures.


Photographed here is Litoria barringtonensis, one of the frogs in that confusing group of green stream frogs. The black spots distinguish this species from...


... Litoria phyllochroa. Interesting to get these two species together at the one site. Despite their similar appearance they do have distinctive calls.

Finally, a photograph of a spawn mass of the tusked frog (Adelotus brevis). Unlike the more familiar spawn of Limnodynastes species, the eggs of Adelotus are entirely unpigmented.