A Roommate Lost And A New One Found :-)

I had been a bit afraid of how I would cope with suddenly living alone again. There were obviously quite a few advantages associated with not having a roommate. Like, it would surprise me if the disappearing ice-cream problem would persist and also, my expectations were that it would be significantly easier to negotiate pillow ownership with an opponent less :-)

So there I was with all the pillows and a bucket of ice-cream while feeling slightly lonely, when a movement revealed that a new little visitor had moved in; a freezing tiny lizard was trying to warm in the sun on the cold floor of my sun-room. Reptiles desperately need heat to be able to move and this little fellow looked in trouble, it was so cold that it could barely move and it looked hungry .. and it was not the ice-cream it was after :-)

I quickly arranged a tiny puddle of water and a selection of food crumbs in the sunny windowsill, lifted the cold little lizard up there and got hold of my camera and macro lens. It was incredible easy getting the close-ups of the lizard, it barely moved .. for about 2 min! :-) After that its movements became faster and I decided to observe from a distance.

I somehow had imagined that it would just stand there and let the sun slowly heat its body, instead the lizard immediately flattened itself onto the warm windowsill as soon as I had placed it there to maximize heat transfer. What a smart feller! :-) The crumbs disappeared and the little fellow took off up along the sliding window - great little happening on an otherwise boring August day :-)

A Long Day in Botany Bay NP - Part 1 - Reptiles

Had a big day down south last weekend, weather is improving fast and all kinds of wildlife is creeping out from under their rocks to take advantage of the sun - that included yours truly, who had managed to get out of bed and was pretty determined to make a day out of it in combo with the camera.


I did not see any new birds, despite of a rumored visit by a red knot, but there was heaps of other stuff going on including an impressive selection of reptiles. Identification of reptiles is significantly more difficult than for the birds, guess they are less mobile and hence more prone to the development of local characteristics. An excellent starting point though is the NPWS Atlas of NSW wildlife in combo with a reptile book or - even better - the internet. Utilizing those sources I risk one eye and claim the first two pictures above to be of a Jacky Lizard (Amphibolurus muricatus).

I used most of the day in the National park. Making my way to Boat Harbour in the western end of the park and following the coast all the way around to Cape Solander. Covering quite a few types of habitats.

One of the top spots for reptiles is just off the carpark - less than 100 meters down towards the water and follow the path to the right - water drains through this area keeping it moist and a number of big boulders provide protection for the inhabitants.

There are always some opportunistic predaceous birds hanging around though; ravens, magpies and kestrels, guess they would not be there if they were not lucky once and a while and the presence of a few surprisingly short lizards seems to suggest that indeed it is a dangerous job being a lizard.

Have had a hard time identifying the skink above, best guess is some type of Garden or Grass Skink (Lampropholis delicata or L. guichenoti) The wildlife atlas does indeed suggest that there is another type of Lampropholis running around in Botany Bay NP. The big colorful one in the picture below looks very much like a Eastern Water-skink (Eulamprus quoyii), but as with all of the "guesses" suggestions are very welcome. :-)