Andy and I were heading up to an area in the Bowen Basin that had been set aside as an offset site for a new steel-making mine. Two things were unusual about this trip: we were looking for feral animals, and the site we were working on was to be protected in perpetuity – actively managed to improve habitat for rares! That was a good feeling. We were staying in one of the big mining camps, which is always a bit weird. My values don’t really align with the vibe of these places… though needs must when the devil drives.
Our first day on site was basically a reconnaissance. We chucked out a few cameras and had a sniff around. Next day was a total bludge as we were going to be out that night. I had a look around the camp, hoping to get up to 100 leps. On site the day before I had a tantalising glimpse of an Orange or Yellow Migrant, so I was hoping to find one feeding that I could photograph. There’s a little track that I spin laps on at the camp so I went there first. Tawny Coster were everywhere around the area and were by far the most common butterfly… soon they will be everywhere in Bris too I guess. It was very quiet, but soon I had a little Grass-yellow fluttering about on the track. It paused and I managed a couple of photos. Wow! It had a really pinky underside of the hindwing. Macleay’s Grass Yellow – lep 98!
A bit further on I staked out some flowering Carissa. A Lemon Migrant was feeding there and I thought one of the other Migs might show up too. While waiting I found a couple of little Hesperids. A waiting game began as I tried to get some photos of the upperwings… eventually they cooled down a bit and were basking with their wings open… it was back to the room after that and into Braby. I reckon the skippers were Large Yellow Grass-darts – lep 99. What I initially thought was a Yellow Migrant visiting the bush was, on review, simply a richly coloured Lemon Migrant… great pain! The search for 100 continues. That night when eating dinner in the BBQ area we were visited by a TOCR with a bit of a bill problem. Xe was very cute and I took xir some roast animal flesh from the dining room later that night to help xir along. I saw xir a couple of days later outside my room nailing phasmids so I think xe’ll be right.
That was really the only excitement for the next few days. The conditions around the work site were pretty dire. It was very dry and VERY dusty. Despite this the number of Central Gurglers (Petauroides armillatus) along the creeklines was astonishing, with a max count of 7 animals in a kilometre transect. Most were grey on top with black legs and tails and a cream tummy like the individual below. We also saw a few all-dark animals with white tummies. Koala scratches were fairly sparse and we only saw one animal in the six nights of survey. It was a really nice feeling knowing that the animals we were seeing were safe from habitat destruction though! There weren’t many ferals around either, so the nights became a bit monotonous.
On the way into site on the penultimate night we saw a calf that had somehow gotten to the wrong side of a fence. Andy opened a nearby gate and I used the car to muster the little critter back to his mum, who bellowed her appreciation. Surely Gaia would favour us for this act of kindness? We’d seen only one Gilgai with any dampness so we stopped later on that night to check it out. I’m glad we did, because it was absolutely pumping. Due to the dry conditions it seemed as though the frogs had congregated here – we had about 100 frogs in an area the size of my living room! There were 8 species kicking around and emerging from the soil cracks. Encouragingly, we only saw a few Cane Toads – I estimated that the native frogs outnumbered them by about 20 to 1. The melon hole was starting to dry out and the soil was cracking on the edges. I had a glimpse of snake-like movement in a crack and… YES! I had rumbled a young Ornamental Snake! I’d been hoping for this species on the trip so I was stoked! Now that we had the gen we found at least 5 (maybe 6) ORSN over the next few minutes. They were all hunting in the cracks!
After getting our fill of the scales we started going through the frogs and I quickly found something I at first took to be a Marbled Frog. On checking the guide though we settled pretty quickly on Barking Frog – a lifer for both me and Andy. Sweet! It was at the northern edge of its range here. I found a paler one bleeding and suffering in a crack about a metre away from the first. Snake food. Other species in the Gilgai included Platyplectrum ornatum (dozens), Cyclorana verrucosa (again, near the northern edge of its range – saw about 6), Litoria caerulea, latopalmata and rubella (one of each) plus a bunch of really young Litoria inermis. By far the most abundant frog here was the big hooter – Cyclorana novaehollandiae. There were at least 60 individuals of all sizes! One was chowing down on what I guess is a Barking Frog… who was still squeaking quietly from inside the big rig. Life is pain.
The next night was, until the final moments, VERY boring by comparison. Activity was very low across the entire site. We eventually stumbled across a roosting Spotted Nightjar on our way back to the car from a spotlighting transect. The adult was sheltering a little orange fluffball under its wing. Fantastic! I’d always wanted to see a chick, and the fluffy little bludger was just as cute as I’d imagined. We had a quick look through our bins and then went lights off and bailed. Ethical birding – no photos. The moon was bright enough to see where we were going without torches every night, which was pretty cool. It was my second nest tick for the week – I had found a squawking Red-backed Kingfisher nestling in a tunnel on the first day who we visited throughout the trip. The site was otherwise very quiet bird wise… the Nightjar had perked us up a bit but that was the last interesting thing we saw that night, and we were back in bed by 0100. Not a bad week, despite the minor grippage from the shelf! Thanks to my fellow sea wolf Andy for a fun trip and to Civeo for the amazing porridge.
