Cooktown Weekend

Black Mountain skink (Liburnascincus scirtetis)

Eremean Easter

Sand dunes and claypans between Windorah and Bedourie.

The endemic herpetofauna of Mt Elliot

Taking a break near the top of Alligator Falls to check the weather radar. At that point there were no hints of the oncoming storm.
 
Located about 20 kilometres south of Townsville, Mt Elliot is an isolated mountain rising 1234 metres above sea level. It is often regarded as a southern outlier of the Australian Wet Tropics, with thick rainforest dominating higher elevations. Several Wet Tropics species reach the southern limits of their distribution here, but what really makes Mt Elliot special are its endemics: Two lizards and a frog—a crayfish, too—found nowhere else but on this lone mountain. This post will focus on them, sans crayfish.

Sydney and Beyond

The Blue Mountains.
 

Calimandering

Yellow-eyed ensatinas (Ensatina eschscholtzii xanthoptica)

Februrary Finds

Eastern hooded scaly-foot (Pygopus schraderi), a legless lizard.

The launch of Stephen Zozaya Photography

Have you ever seen one of my photos and though to yourself, “Wow, I’d really like to see that hanging on my wall”? No? Well… maybe at some point you will. Or maybe you’re publishing a book and desperately need to license a photo of Notoscincus ornatus to please all the scincophiles in your audience? Well, now you can buy prints or license my photos with just a few clicks. How good is that?!
 

 
Check out my galleries at Stephen Zozaya Photography. I’ve uploaded most of my better photos—at least, I think they’re good—as well as an assortment of stock images of various herps, with a few birds, inverts, and landscapes thrown in. Have a look, tell me what you think, and buy a print for your snake-loving son/daughter/partner/dog.