moloch
New member
Hello everyone,
It has been a long time since my last post. It is spring here in Australia and the geckos are active once again. My wife and I recently headed to the west and made a quick trip up to Kalbarri and then Shark Bay. The weather was fair with cool nights and even rain one evening. Geckos were still out and I will post a few photos of these.
I always prefer to begin with habitat shots so that you that you can get an idea about the home of these geckos. These first shots were from a spectacular gorge walk in Kalbarri National Park. It really was a stunning place and well worth a visit for any of you that head over to this part of the world.
Most of the plants that flowered in the gorge were annuals rather than shrubs.
The plant life above the gorge was completely different. Kalbarri supports an incredible diversity of plants and many of these were flowering at the moment. The best areas were those where the soil was sandy.
The gorgeous feather flowers (Verticordia sp.)were in full flower. Here are a few of the many species.
Several species of Banksia were also flowering.
A couple species of Beaufortia:
These arid shrublands are the home to many geckos. The most common by far was Strophurus spinigerus. It rained during one of my two nights at Kalbarri. The geckos remained active even with rain drops dripping from their backs. A high percentage of the geckos that I saw were gravid females that pressed themselves against the road to try and soak up some of the retained warmth from the day.
I saw a few White-spotted Ground Geckos (Lucasium alboguttatum).
This was my third trip to Kalbarri National Park but it was the first time that I found Beautiful Geckos (Diplodactylus pulcher). Here are a couple of these:
I saw several Western Stone Geckos (Diplodactylis granariensis). Most looked like these two:
... but one was different and very nicely marked. I am not certain but I think that it was a Western Stone Gecko rather than the similar Ornate Gecko (Diplodacytlus ornatus)
I only found a single Smooth Knob-tailed Gecko (Nephrurus levis occidentalis):
I also found a Tessallated Gecko (Heteronotia binoei) that I was not able to photograph and this Variegated Gecko (Gehyra variegata):
The Thorny Devil or Moloch is my favourite lizard. I finally found one of these spectacular creatures as it crossed the road.
Bobtails or Shinglebacks (Tiliqua rugosa) were frequent and often seen in pairs.
Regards,
David
It has been a long time since my last post. It is spring here in Australia and the geckos are active once again. My wife and I recently headed to the west and made a quick trip up to Kalbarri and then Shark Bay. The weather was fair with cool nights and even rain one evening. Geckos were still out and I will post a few photos of these.
I always prefer to begin with habitat shots so that you that you can get an idea about the home of these geckos. These first shots were from a spectacular gorge walk in Kalbarri National Park. It really was a stunning place and well worth a visit for any of you that head over to this part of the world.
Most of the plants that flowered in the gorge were annuals rather than shrubs.
The plant life above the gorge was completely different. Kalbarri supports an incredible diversity of plants and many of these were flowering at the moment. The best areas were those where the soil was sandy.
The gorgeous feather flowers (Verticordia sp.)were in full flower. Here are a few of the many species.
Several species of Banksia were also flowering.
A couple species of Beaufortia:
These arid shrublands are the home to many geckos. The most common by far was Strophurus spinigerus. It rained during one of my two nights at Kalbarri. The geckos remained active even with rain drops dripping from their backs. A high percentage of the geckos that I saw were gravid females that pressed themselves against the road to try and soak up some of the retained warmth from the day.
I saw a few White-spotted Ground Geckos (Lucasium alboguttatum).
This was my third trip to Kalbarri National Park but it was the first time that I found Beautiful Geckos (Diplodactylus pulcher). Here are a couple of these:
I saw several Western Stone Geckos (Diplodactylis granariensis). Most looked like these two:
... but one was different and very nicely marked. I am not certain but I think that it was a Western Stone Gecko rather than the similar Ornate Gecko (Diplodacytlus ornatus)
I only found a single Smooth Knob-tailed Gecko (Nephrurus levis occidentalis):
I also found a Tessallated Gecko (Heteronotia binoei) that I was not able to photograph and this Variegated Gecko (Gehyra variegata):
The Thorny Devil or Moloch is my favourite lizard. I finally found one of these spectacular creatures as it crossed the road.
Bobtails or Shinglebacks (Tiliqua rugosa) were frequent and often seen in pairs.
Regards,
David
As are all the pictures!
