Drop-Bears and Drop-Kicks: Townsville Night Life

The first couple of weeks back at uni are always a bit slow, so there was plenty of time to go spotlighting at night with my mates. It was a bit of a mixed bag, when sometimes we'd head out on what seemed like a perfect night only to find nothing, and then other times head out on a seemingly shitty night (weather wise) only to find some real goodies.

Most night were spent poking around the creeks at the university. A good wet season and some recent rain on this particular night meant that some critters were out and about. This particular night, we started at The Septic (just a part of the creek next to the road that has been dammed to create a small swimming hole), and found a freshly shed keelback (Tropidonophis mairii) nosing around the small puddles of water.

It was a bit fast and definitely did not want its photo taken.

Further down the creek from The Septic, we found a decent sized brown tree snake (Boiga irregularis). It was very cute and a bit of a poser.

Not much else was found that night, apart from the usual house geckos (Hemidactylus frenatus) and spiders.

Some days later, a bit of rain washed over Townsville, so we headed back out to the campus to look for frogs (and anything chasing frogs). I was really hoping to see an eastern snapping frog, but no luck. I don't think we found any snaked that time either. But we did find a nice roadside puddle with plenty of ornate burrowing frogs (Platypectrum ornatum) and desert tree frogs (Litoria rubella) calling at a deafening volume.


Above - Ornate Burrowing Frog (Platypectrum ornatum)

Above - Desert Tree Frog (Litoria rubella)

After that rain, a but of a dry period set in before breaking with some nice showers. I headed out alone on a cold, wet night, not expecting to see much. A good portion of the night was spent trying to locate calling frogs, which is a pain in the arse to do alone. Most frogs will cease calling when you approach, and trying to get eyeshine of something small and nervous is not fun. I thought that the calling ornates would be easy to find, as they like to splay themselves out in the water and use the water to help carry their calls. But alas, no rubellas or ornates.
I did, however, find a very co-operative male graceful tree frog (Litoria gracilenta), and I am really happy with the shots I got of him.
A couple of nights later, I headed back to the same location on a rainy night, and found him in the same Lophostemon tree calling from the leaves. So cool.

A couple of nights later, I got a call from my sister about a baby carpet python at the uni, so off I went!

Cigarette butt for scale

Then next week I headed out to the Ross River Dam wall on a rainy night to have a squiz. Got a pretty good haul, and found out that there is free public Wi-Fi there too!