Cape Hillsborough
Gus and I headed south from Paluma to the Mackay region in central coastal Queensland. This region is home to four species of
Phyllurus that all have tiny distributions. We decided to spend the night at Cape Hillsborough NP due to its close proximity to the home of
Phyllurus isis and
Phyllurus ossa. Cape Hillsborough is a very beautiful area. It is a unusual area in that Hoop Pine grows down to the beach. Normally, I only see these trees in damp areas high up in the mountains. The trees are often present in the same places where
Phyllurus live.
Cape Hillsborough is mostly covered by dry eucalyptus forest with many grass trees in the understorey. It also has sheltered areas that remain damp and support rainforest.
These two mountains, Mt. Blackwood (left) and Mt. Jukes (right), represent the entire known range of
Phyllurus isis. We climbed one of the mountains at night but had no success with the gecko. We did find sheets of rock with crevices along the road but could not find damp creek beds within rainforest, the habitat that seems particularly attractive to
Phyllurus.
We did encounter a few Lemon-barred forest-skinks (
Eulamprus amplus) asleep on the rocks at night.
In the day, these barred skinks were abundant on rocks in the hills around Cape Hillsborough.
Eulamprus is a difficult genus and can be hard to identify in the field. Four species of barred
Eulamprus are possible at Cape Hillsborough so I am not certain of the identity.
Blue-throated Rainbow Skinks (
Carlia rhomboidalis) were common and in their nuptial colours. Some of these were really beautiful lizards.
This are was good for Major's Skinks (
Bellatorias frerei). These skinks were less wary than usual so it was possible to take better photos of the animals.
At night, we found this very nice but mortally injured Carpet Python (
Morelia spilota) on the road.
A huge flock of Red-tailed Black ****atoos moved through the area. Here is part of the flock over the Hoop Pines.
Cape Hillsborough is good for butterflies. I saw many species and was able to photograph a few.
1. Black-and-White Tiger, female laying eggs
2. Austrlian Leaf Butterfly -- these are really hard to see when they land on dry leaves.
3. Canopus Swallowtaile
4. Eastern Brown Crow. These butterflies have irridescent purple in their wings.
5. One of the Grass Yellows.
Mt. Ossa Area
We also visited the small hills of the Mt. Ossa area. These hills are covered with rainforest. We decided to walk up a creek bed to try to reach higher and damper forest. As usual, we had to do a great deal of rock hopping and occasionally climb around boulders or small waterfalls.
We finally reached an area that looked promising. This area had large boulders with cracks.
We were successful and with lots of searching, found 3 of our targets. Two of these had original tails and one had a regenerated tail. These geckos were wary and would run when exposed to light. These seemed to have longer legs than other species.
Mt. Ossa Broad-tailed Gecko (
Phyllurus ossa)
Lemon-barred Forest-Skinks (
Eulamprus amplus) were often seen asleep on the sides of boulders.
This Brown Tree Snake (
Boiga irregularis) gave us a real fright. We heard a mammal crashing through the brush on the opposite side of the creek. We watched that area as we stepped forward. When we looked down, we saw this snake about a meter from our legs. It had reared and was ready to strike. Taipan flashed through my mind but then we realized that it was just a tree snake.
This Wompoo (a.k.a., Magnificent Fruit Dove) appeared to have crashed into a sheer wall of rock. Its body was laying beneath the rock but otherwise did not show damage. We heard the "wompoo" calls of the birds often in the late afternoon when we climbed the gully.
This longicorn (Cerambycid) was huge and colourful.
These Canopus Swallowtails are some of the few Aussie Swallowtails with swallowtails.
Regards,
David
Evening Brown
Phyllurus ossa -- field photos
![[B][U]Strophurus williamsi 3:2 Group or Pairs..,](http://www.geckosunlimited.com/community/./vbclassified/uploaded/thumbnails/402ib9vlcb.jpg)
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