Memoirs of a Larrikin Herper.: Easter Long Weekend Herping.

Long weekends are a great time to invite the mates up for a few drinks and some herping and that's just what I did this Easter. The action started a few hours before everyone got to my place, as I was at the back door I noticed a Wedge Tailed Eagle 30 metres from my house near the creek, so i grabbed my camera to see if I could finally get a closer photo of these magnificent birds of prey. As I approached the one by the creek it flew off which made me then notice the larger male in the tree ( I got photos of a lace monitor in this tree only a week ago ), I took a photo before he also flew off and that's when I spooked one in the gully of the creek and got the second shot, this one stirred the rest of the eagles and on a quick count there were six fully grown eagles. We later learned that day whilst herping along the creek that they had devoured a kangaroo and nothing but bone and hind legs were left, if I hadn't spooked them i have no doubt no flesh would have been left at all, only bone.

The weather was good for the weekend especially when showers were fore casted for the majority of the weekend. We started off spotting Water Dragons and Water Skinks along the creek line and a few Eastern Long Neck Turtles in the dam, we then headed up the mountain and at the first dam stop we spotted a Red Bellied Black Snake, but unfortunately no one grabbed a shot as it took off into the dams reeds, we then saw a Eastern Bearded Dragon basking on a rock but yet again no photo, 10 metres away we then spotted a Yellow Faced Whip Snake which my mate got shots of but I couldn't as I had to keep the 4wd from rolling back down the hill, you can check out the shots by clicking on Herp Affinitys blog in my followed blogs, that's when the 4wd ran out of fuel and we had a 1 1/2 hour walk home. After re-fueling we spotted Broad Palmed Tree Frogs at the top dam, then it was BBQ, drinks and fire time.

During the night we spotted a Fox, Stoney Creek Frogs and sleeping birds and Water Dragons, the next day we got some good shots of Broad Palmed Tree Frogs and I got my first Robust Striped Skink, we also saw a Jacky Lizard and what looked like a dingo, we have had feral dogs in the past and this one is probably one too, although I have no doubt it had dingo in it due to its rich red colour.

All in all we had a great weekend and saw more then I expected we would.

Enjoy,

Larrikin Bax...

Wedge Tailed Eagle - Aquila audax