After the gecko hunting, we headed back south and then towards the coast and Cooktown. We'd spent longer with the parrots than we'd expected, so we were running behind time (which is to be expected when traveling with me). We had only a couple more days, and many more animals to harass. We wanted to get into Cooktown before dark, because our next target would go into hiding when the sun went down.
Black Mountain rises like a stack of charred meatballs left behind by some careless Swedish giant. Originally a single piece of Trevethan Granite that solidified in the Permian Period, the mountain took its current form as millions of years of weathering caused the rock to fracture into a myriad of boulders. The black coloration is formed from a coating of lichen, with the underlying granite being a pinkish-grey colour.
Black Mountain, part of the Black Trevethan Range in north-east Queensland
Black Mountain, part of the Black Trevethan Range in north-east Queensland. Featuring Jordan for scale.
The boulders are home to three endemic species: a frog, a skink and a gecko. We arrived in plenty of time, and the Black Mountain skinks (Liburnascincus scirtetis) were out in force. The skinks flitted effortlessly across the rocks, leaping from boulder to boulder to keep us at a distance. It was certainly easy to see them, but getting decent photos was proving to be hard. Despite their grace in real life, all my photos of them make them look awkward. I think it's because they're perpetually on vertical surfaces. My poor photography skills might also have something to do with it.
Black Mountain skink (Liburnascincus scirtetis)
Black Mountain skink (Liburnascincus scirtetis)
We eventually had our fill of chasing little black skinks around the boulders, so we headed into town to sort out accommodation for the night. We got the inside scoop on where to go for tree kangaroos, so we headed south towards Shiptons Flat. We didn't find any tree roos, but we did manage to find a reptick: Glaphyromorphus nigricaudis.
Black-tailed bar-lipped skink (Glaphyromorphus nigricaudus)
Juvenile Australian wood frog (Rana daemeli). This thing was tiny, and for a moment we thought we'd stumbled across one of the Wet Tropics' extinct Taudactylus.
Later in the afternoon we headed back out to Black Mountain. We had arranged to meet up with Aaron, a seriously hardcore frogger who was also travelling in North Queensland. Together we chased a few more skinks, then started looking for geckos and frogs as the sun went down.
Coastal ring-tailed gecko (Cyrtodactylus tuberculatus)
Black Mountain gecko (Nactus galgajuga). The species name comes from Kalkajaka, an Aboriginal word for the mountain.
Various geckos were out in abundance, and easy to see from a distance due to their eye-shine. We also walked through some of the pockets of rainforest tucked among the boulders, where we spotted a brown tree snake. Unfortunately, the dry conditions meant the endemic frogs were probably tucked away deep in the crevices between boulders. While Aaron wanted to spend every last moment looking for the frog (this was one species he was desperate to see), Chris, Jordan and I wanted to head out onto the roads to see what we could find. Aaron had seen a dead northern death adder on the road as they drove in, so we figured we were in with a shot of finding some interesting beasts out and about. At this point, I was delusional from a lack of sleep (I'd slept about two hours on the side of the road the night before) so I curled up on the back seat and let Chris and Jordan find stuff. I seem to remember them finding some Burton's legless lizards (Lialis burtonis), but not much other than that. We did, however, find what was a new frog for all of us.
Bridled frog (Litoria nigrofrenata)
Eventually, Chris and Jordan tired and we headed back to the caravan park. The next morning we headed back to the Mountain to try to get some decent shots of the skink. Chris was happy with his photos, so he wandered off to look for rock-wallabies. Jordan and I were just putting our cameras together when Chris yelled out incomprehensibly. We figured he'd just seen a bird or something equally unexciting, but then he yelled out again. This time we heard it. "I've got the frog!". Jordan and I looked at each other unconvinced. With five of us having spent the better part of last night searching for the frog, we thought it unlikely that Chris would stumble across one at 9 in the morning on a hot, sunny day. But we wandered over to Chris to indulge him. He had, after all, been the only one of us to spot the gecko the other night. As we approached, we realised that Chris was indeed onto the frog. The unmistakable quack-quack-quack of Cophixalus saxatilis was emanating from a deep boulder crevice. Having heard stories of people entering such crevices and not returning, I was a little hesitant. But there was a frog on the line, damn it, so in we went. Crawling our way down, we ended up about 10m underground, with several male frogs calling. Despite all the echoing, it didn't take long to find them. To make our descent easier, we'd only taken one camera, passing it down when clambering became tricky.
Black Mountain frog (Cophixalus saxatilis)
Black Mountain frog (Cophixalus saxatilis)
We took turns with the camera, then rushed back up to the surface to phone Aaron. He must have been out of range, because his phone kept ringing through to voicemail. We knew where he was staying, so we jumped in the car and dashed down to the Lion's Den hotel. Checking with the European backpacker (concentrate, Stewart!), we were dismayed to find that Aaron had packed up and left an hour or two earlier. He'd now be out of phone coverage until he reached Cairns, where he'd get a flurry of text and voice messages letting him know just how narrowly he'd missed out on seeing the frog. We had arranged to met up with him later that night for another bout of frogging, so we'd be able to console him then. As we walked back to the car, we stumbled across a serendipitous skink: Carlia longipes.
Closed-litter rainbow-skink (Carlia longipes)
My running total: 358 repticks
Repticks:
Liburnascincus scirtetis
Nactus galgajuga
Carlia longipes
Glaphyromorphus nigricaudis
Amphibitick:
Cophixalis saxatilis
Avitick:
Pied Imperial-Pigeon (Ducula bicolor)
Cooktown - a herpetological endeavour
Moderator: Scott Waters
- stewart_macdonald
- Posts: 93
- Joined: August 9th, 2010, 12:16 am
- Location: Townsville, Australia
- Contact:
Re: Cooktown - a herpetological endeavour
Very nice, Stew. That is an excellent shot of the Black Mountain Gecko, one of the best that I have seen. Wow, climbing 10m down into those crevices does not sound like much fun to me. Black Mountain Skinks are always nice animals to watch and photo.
I have to say that your avitick has me puzzled. How have you eluded the Pied Imperial for so long? They are abundant in the north in the summer and there always are a few that stay behind in the rainforest in the winter.
Regards,
David
I have to say that your avitick has me puzzled. How have you eluded the Pied Imperial for so long? They are abundant in the north in the summer and there always are a few that stay behind in the rainforest in the winter.
Regards,
David
- stewart_macdonald
- Posts: 93
- Joined: August 9th, 2010, 12:16 am
- Location: Townsville, Australia
- Contact:
Re: Cooktown - a herpetological endeavour
Thanks, David!
Stewart
I ticked it within about five months of moving to the north. The few other times I'd been up here before moving, I wasn't really paying attention to birds (unless they were six feet tall with large domes on their heads). I've subsequently seen a bunch more in the botanical gardens in Cairns.moloch wrote:I have to say that your avitick has me puzzled. How have you eluded the Pied Imperial for so long?
Stewart