Recent content by moloch

These are photos from a quick trip out to Broken Hill and Menindee in northwestern New South Wales. These areas are quite a distance from Canberra where I am currently working. I clocked over 3500 kms of driving in 4 days so I spent much of my time behind the steering wheel. As always, though...

The following is a summary report of three trips to the UAE and Oman in 2013. I had hoped to return again this year but that now seems unlikely. Last year, I was fortunate to be able to break work trips home from Spain with stops in Dubai. I used holiday time to explore these interesting...

I spent four nights in the UAE including two nights at Al Ain followed by the two nights in Oman (already posted) and then two nights at Fujairah. Here is a map that shows the areas where I searched for reptiles: A: Al Ain area B: Fujairah area C: near Al Malaiha Typical habitat to the...

I am just back from a few days in the UAE and Oman. This report will cover my two nights in Oman. I stopped there while on the return trip from Spain where I worked for a couple of weeks. The UAE and Oman are great places for reptiles and have a good diversity of species. A new field guide to...

Greetings everyone, Earlier this month, I went on a work trip to Spain for a couple of weeks. On the return journey to Sydney, I decided to break the flight in Dubai, hire a car and set off to Oman for a few days. I spent 4 days in the northern part of the country and visited the rugged...

Over the Christmas break, I had the opportunity to make a quick trip to the Red Centre. It is a place that I've wanted to see for many years but never could find the time to get out there. Australia is a big place and the drive to the middle of the continent is a big one from the east coast...

I recently had a week break from work so decided to visit a couple of my favourite areas in the eastern deserts. The first destination was the Lake Eyre Basin near Winton in central western Queensland. This is one of the relatively close places for me to herp but it was a 26 hour drive from my...

Hello everyone, This has been a busy year for me and I have not been out as much as I would like. Back in October, I did make a quick trip out to Windorah in the channel country of south western Queensland. I think that this is one of the best areas in the eastern deserts that I have visited...

Hello everyone, Spring is always my favourite time of the the year. Most of my time this year has unfortunately been consumed by work. I finally had a break a couple of weeks back. My original intent was to travel up to northern NSW to photograph butterflies. I wanted to search for...

This report covers animals that I recorded between Cooktown and the Atherton Tablelands. This is a view of the Cooktown area at the mouth of the Endeavor River. Those distant plateaus looked very inviting. This wetland was on the outskirts of Cooktown. It was a seasonally flooded...

This report includes a Northern Velvet Gecko (Oedura castelnaui) and other animals that we saw along the road between Cooktown and the Iron Range. The took us about 8 hours or so. The road was mostly dirt with a few sections that were paved. The dirt track up Cape York is well maintained but...

I was very fortunate on my recent trip to Queensland to travel with two enthusiastic young herpers that I met on one of the Aussie herp forums. Gus helped me tremendously in the Townsville and Mackay areas and showed me several of the range restricted Leaf-tailed Geckos (Phyllurus). Gus had...

Gus kindly took me to Bowling Green National Park near Townsville to see another of the leaf-tails with a tiny distribution. This species, Phyllurus amnicola, is only known from Mt. Elliot. Gus visited the site a few months back and was able to locate the geckos. The walk to the site is a...

From the Mt. Ossa area, Gus and I drove to the Eungella Plateau. The plateau is covered with rainforest and is home to another of the 4 endemic Phyllurus that are found near Mackay. Here are a couple of habitat shots from Eungella. These photos were from Finch Hatton Gorge, an area that is...

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...