Python update

Lady Luck is facetiously unpredictable yet I was finally granted some good fortune tonight.  The snakes had not been overly active, being restricted by the torrential downpours that plagued the Tablelands daily.  The past few days had been dry, and I was hoping for a better night of spotlighting.  I have seen the most snakes around the main Centre, often walking the 3 mile trek through pristine rainforest seeing nothing only to come back to find several snakes on the side veranda.  I decided tonight to check out several of the buildings on site, as abandoned or rarely used dwellings provide excellent habitat for rodents and skinks (and subsequently snakes). 

My first stop was the “greenhouse.”  Though more of a tent than a building, this area contains an old shed, some tin, mulch, and plenty of optimal microhabitats.  Outside the greenhouse was a large mulch pile with two Eastern Small-eyed Snakes perched on top, one small female and one extremely robust male 28” in total length (very large for this species of elapid).  A very good start.  I walked into the greenhouse examining rows both to my left and right.  Ten yards in, I caught something in my periphery.  I glanced left…Carpet Python!!!!  I sprinted the 20 yards down the row, around the end, and back up again.  My first wild python!  What a gorgeous specimen as well.  This 65” male had classic northeast Queensland coloration (yellow and block mottling), retaining juvenile-like markings.  I reached down to grab this magnificent serpent, strike!  He was not nearly as excited to see me as I him.  I eventually corralled the uncooperative python (not without getting nailed in the calf first) and moved him to a different location to take photos.  About an hour later I released this snake, enjoying watching him slide off into the rainforest as much as I enjoyed our initial encounter.  I returned to my cabin content, and write this with high hopes for tomorrow and my next blog. 

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Dragon Trail update

It had been a long past few days sitting through lecture after lecture and I was itching to get back out into the field.  I picked a trail near the west end of the site in some old growth rainforest which I thought could produce a python, grabbed my headlamp, and headed out at sunset.  The forest was characterized by vines and strangler figs, a much different ecosystem than the more recent restoration site located a click away.  Darkness reaches a new meaning underneath the closed canopy, and turning off your spotlight truly becomes a humbling experience.  Upon doing so I made an interesting discovery, florescent fungi that can be seen from several yards away.  These tiny detrivores have, for some reason or another, evolved to literally glow in dark, perhaps to aid in spore dispersal. 

See and download the full gallery on posterous

I continued down the trail, avoiding nasty wait-a-whiles (large fern-like plants with razor sharp tendrils) and picking blood-sucking leeches from my body (at one point I counted over ten on or in my body).  Rounding the corner, my headlamp fell upon a truly mystical creature, the Boyd's Forest Dragon (Hypsilurus boydii).  Contrary to the literature on this agamid, this individual was not in favor of discreetly sliding around the sapling trunk out of view but rather took off straight up the tree.  I ran over to the sapling, looked up, and saw the lizard nearly 50 feet up.  The sapling would not support my weight, but I was not about to let this magnificent reptile escape.  I grabbed hold of the sapling at chest height, and shook.  A few seconds later, the dragon came tumbling out of the tree and hit the ground at a dead sprint.  The chase was on!  Running through the pitch black, dodging branches, hurtling fallen trees, I managed to keep my light on the lizard (who was running on his hind legs - bipedal locomotion is not uncommon amongst agamids) and ran him down nearly 30 yards from where we started.  I saw my chance and dove, grasping him by the last inch of his tail (which thankfully didn't break).  Success!  Scraped, bruised, and out of breath I picked up the dragon and headed back to the tree where we had our first encounter.  I spent the next half hour taking photographs, and released the lizard back to his perch.  I finished the walk and saw nothing else of note.  I was not overly concerned and retired to my cabin content, hoping to encounter my new dragon friend again...

Snakes & Dragons

Well we’ve finally had three dry days in a row.  I could not wait to go spotlighting, hoping that my luck would change and I would finally come across some of the snakes I traveled around the world to see.  The night did not disappoint me.  I tried a new trail at 8:00 PM, hoping a change in rainforest type might put me on some different, and larger, fauna.  Ten minutes later, my headlamp fell upon a tiny agamid lizard perched nearly 7 feet off the ground on a horizontal vine.  My first Australian Dragon capture (and redemption from the previous escape at Yungaburra while looking for a platypus)!  While only a juvenile this small Eastern Water Dragon is a very special specimen, a much needed change from the ubiquitous tiny skink Carlia rubrigularis that swarms the forest floor.  Heading back to the main trail, I spotted movement in my periphery.  An Eastern Small-eyed Snake!  These elapids appear to be quite common at the Centre (the Aussie spelling of the site, not my own), and I’ve encountered nearly a half dozen already.  This was by far the largest individual I had encountered yet, but he politely stopped his serpentine motion and allowed me to snap a quick few photographs.  Content with my two herp sightings for the night, I stopped off at my cabin to grab a towel and headed for the showers.  Walking down the stairs, I calmly glanced back over my shoulder to see another Small-eyed literally beneath my cabin.  As I watched, I couldn’t help but be reminded of the more diurnal North American elapid, the Coral Snake (Micrurus fulvius), a warm memory of mine from north Florida.  I let him on his way, and me on mine although I would not be surprised if we crossed paths again.

RAIN forest!

Tonight is the reason it is called a “RAIN”forest.  The intensity of the rain was unbelievable, not to mention the torrential downpour also sustained itself for hours.  Yet with warm summer rains come anurans.  The cacophony of the tree frog chorus was deafening at times, with at least 3 different species calling from the same ephemeral pools.  The largest and most abundant tree frog was the Northern Orange-eyed Treefrog, often the subject of postcards and the “poster-child” of different wildlife organizations (see picture).  Many males were seen calling, and two pairs were actually viewed in amplexus attempting to mate.  My inner child was reborn, and I reminisced my younger years of chasing Carpenter Frogs in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey as I sloshed around an Australian pool some 15 years later for nearly the same purpose.  And while I retire to my bed soaked to the bone, I cannot help but smile as my tub of new roommates call incessantly still with their “waarks” and “pirrs”, a sound I will take anytime over the traffic of the civilization.

Atherton Tablelands Story

This past week, one of our professors drove us through the Atherton Tablelands highlighting different geological features of the countryside.  Being on the Tablelands within the Great Dividing Range, the granite escarpments offer wonderful views (as seen from one of my recent photographs).  These landforms were formed via volcanic activity, and we visited several inactive craters in the area.  Blomfield Swamp, a now marshy depression where cattle graze ironically enough, was a beautiful extinct crater located not far from our site (second picture inset).  The sheer beauty and diversity of the landscapes here in Queensland would be hard to match, and there is not another place on the planet I would rather be at the moment than here…

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Typical days in Australia

So far, every day has been differenet but here is an example of some of my days on the project Down Under.  Some mornings field work can start as early as 5 AM or last through the night.

EXAMPLE DAY 1

0730  Breakfast

0830  Class: Australian & Tropical Rainforest Environments

0945  Class: Australian Rainforest Classification

1100  Economic Theory & NRM impacts in Queensland

1200  Lunch!

1300  Rainforest Disturbance & succession

1430  Rainforest structure

1730  Dinner!

1930  Spotlighting

EXAMPLE DAY 2  Community Service Day

0700  Breakfast

0800  Rotates: Landcare, Nursery, Site Maintenance or Water Testing

1200  Lunch!

1300  Warrawork Atherton free time

1730  Dinner!

EXAMPLE DAY 3

0730  Breakfast

0830  Field Work or write-up analysis

1200  Lunch!

1300  Field Work or write-up analysis

1730  Dinner!

Began with a Bang

My arrival in Australia began with a bang, as category five cyclone Yasi smashed into Queensland and devestated the coast. We spent 36 hours locked down in a central stronghold as the storm passed, awakening the next morning to shattered trees, flooded forest and a loss of power that would last nearly a week. Fortunately for us, the eye wall made landfall further south and we avoided the most damaging winds that so severely impacted Mission Beach and Tully.

Aside from the worst cyclone to hit Australia in recent memory, my week has been somewhat quiet. The drive to the Center from Cairns was breathtaking. We wound through the 2,500 ft escarpment of the Atherton Tablelands, passing through lush green pastures, dry sclerophyll forest and finally ascending into the lush green of the tropical rainforest. Possums (very different from the North American species), pademelons (miniature kangaroos), and bandicoots are plentiful on site as is the Sulphur-Crested Cockatoo. My snake adventures have been limited due to the weather (and not just Yasi) as I literally haven't seen the sun since my arrival. It has been unusually moist here on the Atherton Tablelands and we've had heavy rain daily. Yet I have managed to see two species, the Slaty-grey Snake (a harmless visitor of waterways that I collected while attempting to find a platypus) and the Small-eyed Snake (an elapid relative in size and morphology to the North American Coral Snake).

I am hopeful that the weather makes a turn for the better, although it is the wet season and rain is likely until March. Classes start full-time tomorrow (we were forced off of schedule - or "shhedule" as the Aussies would say - by cyclone Yasi) and I need to go work on an essay.  Until next time..