I'm taking Wildlife of the Hunter Valley to YouTube !

I've decided to take Wildlife of the Hunter Valley to YouTube - I have so much footage that's unlikely to see the light of day otherwise, so why not share to a wider audience.   

Hope to see you there !  

Gavin 

Something different - a Western brown snake, Myall snakes and more

 

I was working in a remote mining town in outback NSW for the last couple of weeks, and encountered this beautiful Western brown snake sunning itself by the side of the road late in the afternoon.     

Until recently this species was known as the Western Brown snake, Pseudonaja nuchalis but has now been reclassified as the "Strap-snouted Brown Snake" Pseudonaja aspidorhyncha.  Reclassifying old familiar species seems to be happening ever more frequently, and I'm not sure it's always warranted.  The common name bestowed on this majestic species just doesn't seem fitting to me.  Regardless of what you call them, these are a dangerously venomous species and are extremely fast, defensive and most definitely not to be molested.      

Speaking of interesting snakes, I noticed that Myall snakes, Suta suta were also quite common in the area.  While these inoffensive snakes are venomous, as long as you don't try to pick them up, they are inoffensive and harmless.  If you do pick them up, you had better know what you are doing because they will readily bite, and allegedly they pack a wallop.  

An inoffensive Myall snake alongside my size 14 boot for scale.  The snake ignored me completely, allowing me to take a couple of photos before I moved on, leaving it to its road basking.  The area is so remote that there was little risk from traffic to the snake.  

I also observed several Green tree frogs, numerous Tessellated geckos, several road killed Bearded dragons (sadly, one was a gravid female that left eggs all over the road) and a blind snake on the same night.  I didn't bother to identify the blind snake as you have to handle them to count scales to identify them properly, and they pack a decent defensive stink excretion.      

     

   

Large Eastern brown snake - DOR Cassilis 20/09/2024

It was a perfect Friday afternoon, 20th September 2024.  I had just entered the upper Hunter valley, it was a perfect bluebird sky, 28 degrees C, the 4WD was on cruise control and the traffic was nearly non-existent.  Tex Perkins and the cruel sea were mumbling on about a black stick, and I was in bliss - heading for home after a fortnight working in the dust and flies of a remote mining town.  I noticed a very solid elapid on the road verge, and hoped it would still be there when I turned the vehicle around . . .   

I guess you should be careful what you wish for - because unfortunately he was still there - dead as a doornail - right on the side line of the road.  

Notice the head is fairly similar to the size of the neck? It's been run-over by a car, so it's a little deformed, and this is a large, quite old adult specimen. If it was a smaller snake, it's head would be a lot more "delicately-built".

In life, if this snake was really defensive (and it doesn't take much to make an Eastern brown snake VERY defensive), it would flatten it's neck out quite a lot - which gives rise to the name of it's genus - "Pseudonaja".  By the way, "Naja" is the genus for cobras - hence it is quite well described as a "pseudo-cobra".  Pretty good description, because its hood looks a little like a cobra when it's really, really annoyed, except our Brown snakes are about 1,000 times faster, more deadly and vastly more agile than a cobra.      

       

Here's what the ventral surface looks like - the yellow belly with orange spots is fairly characteristic of Eastern brown snakes.  

Final point - the red flesh protruding from the snakes' anus above is not intestine - they are hemipenes - yes - male snakes have two penises.  Lizards do too.  If you zoom in on the hemipene on the top, you can clearly see the barbs and spikes on his manhood - similar to a domestic tom-cats'. 

So in closing, this was a very large, very old male Eastern brown snake.  A wild guess, he would have been around 20 years of age, and a real survivor.  Such a sad way for a magnificent animal to end his days.     

The Eastern koels are here too - Tuesday 24th September 2024

Its Tuesday 24th September 2024, and I was up at 5 am, before first light, taking my morning exercise in the crisp, still air.  I was thinking to myself that it feels like we are going to have a warm summer this year when the call of an Eastern koel echoed around the neighbourhood at Casa da Ayre.  Even my dog paused for a moment.  I reached down, gave her a quick hug and walked on.  Tempus fugit indeed . . .     

Channel-billed cuckoos arrive - Sunday 22nd Sept 2024

 They're back again already - it feels like a week has past since I wrote my last migratory cuckoos have arrived post and wow - another year has been & gone and the cycle of renewal begins anew . . .  

I was in Whitebridge, having a rest late in the afternoon sunshine after riding through Glenrock reserve last Sunday, 22nd Sept 2024.  I was chatting with my friend when our conversation was interrupted by the raucous shrieks of a Channel-billed cuckoo - sure enough, moments later one of the distinctive large grey cuckoos flew directly overhead - with a squadron of Pied currawongs and Noisy miners in hot pursuit.  Somewhere a female was likely silently sneaking around, looking for am unguarded nest . . .

       

   

A big rustle in the bushes . . .

 I have been out of town for work for the last few weeks, and truly relished the perfect spring weather that greeted me when I returned.  It was a weekend of endless blue skies and warm days - in the high 20 degrees.  A friend & I wanted to catch up, so we rode our mountain bikes around the quiet trails in Glenrock reserve.  We were having a break when "something" was disturbed by our presence, and took off through the dry undergrowth at a rate of knots.  My friend was really worried about a snake - but smiled when I pointed to the culprit watching us from a nearby tree.  

Lace monitors are still common in the area, right here on the coast despite the rapidly expanding population moving to Lake Macquarie.  Nice to see a Lace monitor in the bush doing it's thing, so very close to my home - rather than sad road pizza.     

   

Bush sign posts

 

"This is MY patch !" says the local wombat

Distinctively "squarish" Wombat scats and scratchings

If you've spent much time in the bush here in Lake Macquarie, you will have seen the territorial scat piles that Wombats leave to mark their territory.  If they're fresh (like the one above) you can't miss the scratchings and unmistakeable smell of fresh earth and stinky poo !    

Wombats are friendly herbivores, that eat nothing but roots and leaves.  There has to be a joke there somewhere.  They are extremely common in the Hunter Valley, though unless you're driving in the bush at night you usually won't see them.  But you'll certainly see where they have been. This is a typical example of their scat markings - they'll leave a gift somewhere unmissable - such as the middle of a bush track, surrounded by scratchings to make it even more obvious. The smell from this pile made my nose hairs curl as I walked past it yesterday.  "Mine, Mine, MINE !" it screamed.  

The funny thing you will notice about Wombat poo is that it is typically square.  So next time you're in the bush and see unmistakeable, matchbox-sized cubes of poo perched carefully on a rock in the middle of a track, you know what left them !              

New-born Red-bellied black snake

 

I was walking the dogs in Belmont North last night and found yet another snake freshly killed, dead on the road (DOR).  This time, the unfortunate snake was a new-born Red-bellied black snake, Pseudechis porphyriacus. 

I've kept many of this species over the years, and found them very interesting animals.  Intelligent, very robust in captivity and very reluctant to bite.  In captivity though, you really need to be careful not to become blasé with them, as they are highly poisonous if they do bite, and they are absolute PIGS when it comes to feeding time.  

It is interesting for a lot of non-herpetologists to realise that Red-bellied blacksnakes usually do not have red-bellies !  The "red-belly" is usually just a couple of rows of scales on the edges of the belly.  Often the belly is much paler, and even WHITE !  You might notice that the scales under the tail, past the cloaca (fancy word meaning anus) are black.  I have never seen a Red-bellied black snake without a black tail like this - even newborn snakes like this one are black beneath the tail.  It's very hard to see in this image, because the snake's head has been crushed, but the tip of it's nose will almost always have a brown tip.       

Speaking of colours, this snake has an orange coloured belly - and if you didn't know - looks almost exactly the same as the colour on the belly of the Golden-crowned snake two posts back.           

Rough-scaled snake flavoured road-pizza

 

Here's a Rough-scaled snake, with a crushing headache, just north of the Mungo Brush camping area. Its probably been dead on the road for at least a week, but even in death, its keeled scales show it is unmistakeably a Rough-scaled snake (Tropidechis carinatus).  I know it's a gory photo, but it is important as a voucher specimen. 

The map above is from the Atlas of Living Australia, and the record in the water is actually one I submitted THIRTY YEARS AGO this month. I found it freshly dead on the road, and lodged the carefully preserved specimen with the Australian Museum.  I must have entered the location easting with a typo, as it was actually on the road immediately to the east (where the other record is).  This was the southern-most record of the species for decades.  The next most southerly record was Gloucester Tops, well to the North-west.  The Newcastle herpetological community knew about the Rough-scaled snakes at Mungo for many years before I lodged my specimen, but it was an extremely tightly kept secret. I copped a lot of flack from my mates at the time for "blowing the whistle" on them.       

Looking at it these days, it seems no-one keeps anything secret. There has been a spate of new records for the species, and the southern-most record is now Patonga !  

For the non-herpetologist, the Rough-scaled snake is a fascinating little beastie.  In NSW, they tend not to get as large as other elapids.  Around 1.2 m or so seems to pull most of them up.  They are extremely alert, quite fast, and usually very lively to handle.  They have large fangs and if you are unlucky enough to get bitten, they have a unique venom.  It's venom is related to tiger snakes, and will be neutralised by tiger snake antivenom.  It has a unique property - most people bitten will pass out briefly within minutes of being bitten.  Once the person regains consciousness shortly afterwards, envenomation proceeds much like a tiger snake bite.  Definitely one you do not want to get bitten by !               

Golden crowned snake

 

I was very pleasantly surprised to find one of my favourite snakes out and about this week.  I was on my evening walk with my dog, and encountered a gorgeous Golden crowned snake out hunting, just after dark, in a small patch of bushland near Casa da Ayre in Belmont North.  They are nocturnal and quite common in the general area. I have encountered a few in Belmont North over the years while out for an evening walk.  Because they are nocturnal, most locals wouldn't know they were present.      

While this species is a venomous elapid, they are usually very reluctant indeed to try to bite. Instead they tend to bluff their way out an encounter by posturing and bluff striking with their mouths firmly closed.  If that fails, they'll thrash wildly away from the threat as fast as they can. If you pick one up, they have a bright orange belly, and will readily smear a foul-smelling secretion all over your hand and fingers. 

I have never known one to try to bite, but they certainly could if you picked one up. They are simply interested in running away as fast as possible and pose zero threat to people.  They are thought to feed mostly on skinks, small dragons and frogs, so allegedly their venom is very mild. Most people would have a reaction similar to a bee or wasp sting, but as with all snakes, it's best not to find out. 

I kept my dog well back, took a few quick voucher photos with my phone and stamped my feet a couple of times.  The snake simply glided away back into the undergrowth to resume hunting.  Beautiful !                

A rustle from above

 

It was about 8:30pm last night, about half an hour after proper-dark.  I was enjoying my evening walk with one of the dogs last night, when something overhead caught her attention. Looking up, a Brush-tailed possum eyed us sceptically from the branches, some 15 metres or so above. 

"Yawn, just another Brushie", I thought to myself. 

Then I chuckled and caught myself.  I took a few moments to appreciate a lovely native animal, perfectly adapted to life in the suburbs amongst people.  Common species of native urban wildlife gets very much taken for granted, unless it's injured or annoying.  I just paused and watched this one for almost a minute, suddenly noticing another large adult Brush-tail watching us from much higher in the canopy of a nearby tree.  A few moments later, I smiled, patted Mabel and resumed our evening exercise.  

Its funny how I tend to take such common animals for granted.  It's interesting that we are two days out from the new moon, and usually I see possums in abundance at this stage of the lunar cycle.  We have Ring-tailed possums in profusion locally as well.  But last night, despite looking carefully for them, these were the only two possums we observed in the entire 6.5km course of our walk. 

Dingo

 

Once upon a time, in a previous life I've left far, far behind, (last millennium), I was a zoo keeper.  Dingoes were one of my favourite charges, and I still have a very soft spot for them to this day.  They are charismatic, shamelessly aloof and highly intelligent. There is something "knowing" in their expression.     

This beautiful young male crossed the road in front of me and watched from the road verge, near Mungo Brush, Myall Lakes National Park, Monday 4th March 2024.  Dingoes are still a common sight here to this day.      
            

The cuckoos are back - on their way north ?

An anecdotal migratory cuckoo observation   

I have noticed another wave of Channel-billed cuckoos and Koels calling in my neighbourhood in Belmont again over the last three weeks.  At first I thought it was just a one-off, but I've noticed it and now I cannot help noticing ! 

I suspect both species are starting to drift north again.  Interestingly, there has been a second wave of just-fledged young Magpies around, so perhaps the cuckoos double dip on their way back north and capitalise on the Magpies and Ravens breeding again?  I cannot see why they would risk drawing attention to themselves with their loud, raucous calls otherwise.

Food for thought.             

Yet another Asian house gecko in Belmont, Lake Macquarie, NSW

 

Juvenile Asian house gecko - Belmont, Lake Macquarie NSW

I was on my evening walk last night, and stopped by the public building where I've previously observed Asian house geckos in the last few weeks.  Thankfully it was a much cooler day.  Walking was actually pleasant again, as the humidity was far lower and the early evening was significantly cooler.  Likely the temperature was somewhere in the low 20 degrees Celsius. 

A sub-adult Asian house gecko was foraging under a light in the same spot as the previous two.  This individual is nearly twice the size of the juvenile I observed previously, so they are very definitely happily breeding here. 

Again, I only had my (failing) mobile phone with me, and I was able to grab a single voucher image from 20 feet away, before the gecko disappeared into the cavity next to its' head.  This gecko was surprisingly vigilant, reacting to my presence when I first stopped to scan the area - about 30 feet away.  I fished my phone out of my pocket and crept forwards, zooming in as much as I could.  I took one image before the gecko zoomed into the holes in the bricks next to its' head. No other geckos were active.              

New species for Casa da Ayre - Crimson rosellas

Records of Crimson rosella observations, Eastern Lake Macquarie NSW. 

Crimson rosellas are a widespread, common species.  However, as you can see in the map above, they are just not as commonly seen in eastern Lake Macquarie as Eastern rosellas or Rainbow lorikeets.  In fact, the closest I have personally seen them is Blackbutt Reserve near New Lambton NSW. 

I have regularly observed them in cooler, tall-timbered areas.  In fact the Watagan mountains (about an hours drive due west) is the closest place I know where I could guarantee to see one.  They are the dominant rosella species in the Blue mountains and Barrington tops.  

I was shocked to find three perched on the powerline in my front yard this afternoon.  We are growing sunflowers in the front garden this year, and have a score of mature seed heads that must have caught their attention.  In years past, King parrots, Rainbow lorikeets, Sulphur-crested cockatoos, Galahs and Little corellas have dropped by to sample our sunflowers.  We even get frequent visits from Yellow-tailed black cockatoos when our macadamia nut trees have mature fruit.

Now we get to add Crimson rosellas to our species list !  How wonderful.                

Asian house gecko population is breeding

 It was hot & sticky day yesterday, (Friday 2nd Feb 2024) and the temperature reached a typical summer time mid-30's.  It was still in the high twenties and very humid that night.  My wife & I decided to take the girls for a walk as it had cooled enough to be tolerable, and we all needed to stretch our legs. 

We walked past the same building I observed the Asian house gecko in the previous post.  Naturally I checked to see if it was out, and instead there was small, likely 12 month old juvenile in the same place.  This gecko was extremely shy, and rapidly scurried into a crevice as soon as my torch beam touched him, despite being ten feet off the ground. Unfortunately, neither of us had our phones, so couldn't get a voucher photo - but it was unmistakeably an Asian house gecko and this record indicates they are definitely breeding here in Belmont. 

I'll drop past again later in the week while the warm weather keeps up, and see if I can get a decent photo. 

Addendum - I was working in the backyard this afternoon (Saturday 3rd Feb 24) and heard the unmistakeable daytime chirp of another Asian house gecko.  Further evidence that they are well established here now !         

Observation of the Asian House gecko, (Hemidactylus frenatus) in Belmont

 

Four years ago I observed an Asian house gecko (Hemidactylus frenatus) on our home here in Belmont, Lake Macquarie NSW.  Uploaded the record to the Atlas of Living Australia as it had a bit of importance at the time to document the invasion wave of this introduced species of reptile.  I was quite familiar with Asian house geckos as I spent some years living in Darwin in the NT - where they are absolutely endemic. 

I had been sporadically hearing their characteristic day-time chirp, and thinking "Hey ! That sounded like a bloody Asian house gecko (!?!?!?!?!) but can't have been because there are no records of them around here".  I figured it had to have been the call of some little SJB bird ("Small-Brown-Jobby" for the non-twitchers) that I have not learned yet.  Well, surprise !  There are records of Asian house geckos here now.      

That was four years ago nearly to the damn day.  I was walking my dogs last night and noticed my second specimen for this neighbourhood.  I grabbed a quick image with my phone to prove my identification.  Because of the poor lighting, the photos are very poor - but it is unmistakeably an Asian house gecko with a regenerated tail-tip, hunting under the lights of a public building near my home.

Although they are an introduced species, and carry risks of parasites & exotic diseases, I don't see this as a huge big deal.  They are exploiting an environmental niche not filled by anything else locally.  It is not like there are Lesueur's velvet geckos, Robust velvet geckos or broad-tailed geckos taking insects under the lights of buildings anywhere near here.  Sure, there will be small numbers in leafy remote suburbs like Martinsville, but I have lived here most of my life and NEVER seen a single native gecko hunting under lights in the Lake Macquarie area.  Asian house geckos will have an impact - as all introduced species of plants or animals do.  But at least they are not poisonous to our native fauna like cane toads are.  In fact they might help reduce the insect loads a little.  I guess we'll have to watch and see - there is no possibility of getting rid of them now.