BLUE TONGUE SKINKS

I find it a bit depressing how people living in the area move to somewhere like the Blue Mountains and try to European-ise there surroundings, surrounded by Banksias, Warratahs growing on the roadsides Eastern Water Dragons looking at you from road cuttings. All things that have to be sterilised and homogonised.

We have had a lot of tree changers move here since around 1990. They all seem to buy a 4WD, elastic-sided boots, moleskins, a Drizabone and an Akubra hat and stroll around the streets telling all and sundry they are locals. Apart from the comic relief they provide they contribute very little else with their manicured lawns and appalling plants like agapanthus. Oh and I forgot, they all need to have a bloody dog for the 4WD and a cat for the yard.

After there is a bushfire within 10kms they are bleating in letters to the local newspaper demanding hazard reduction be carried out around their properties. There is no consideration given to the amount of native species and their habitat that is lost by this fire clearance to protect their lawns.

Kat - I have been to Banff and Jasper and they really are well worth protecting.

It is amazing , even Liz a bit fat Alpine blends in well with dry grass.

Would you see here if you were walking through the bush?

I'm loving the parks discussion. Just spent a lot of time reading up on Blue Mountains. Had a whole list of questions for you regarding fire suppression, prescribed burns etc. etc. but research answered all of them. Imagine that!

I simply love those camouflage pictures. I have a big collection I'm going to put up one of these days.

Pics now restored via Photobucket.

Awesome!

love the yellow and black of the blotchies in your area el lobo,its great to document the happenings of the wild ones,wish we had more lowlands to watch here,heaps of easterns though so that helps i guess,seen only one adult female in our yard,blotch that is and one juvie,this time of year i often get a male or 2 hanging around my outside enclosures though,obviously pick up the scent of my cycling females,lol

I haven't updated this for a while. These pics are from 2012.

October 29, 2012.









November 4, 2012.

nice norm

the face deformed one has turned into a nice dark looking specimen,lots of black including on top of head,i imagine with a fresh shed it would be a looker

I should point out the pictures in the last post are of two different skinks. The skink in the second group of pics is the mother of the skink with the facial deformity.

she looks tame! are wild blueys supposed to behave that way?

The smaller one calms down very quickly when she is picked up but will run and display until held.

The larger female has been living around our place for around 6-7 years so knows us well enough to stay put in our presence. I don't try to randomly pick her up as I would rather have her not feeling threatened in any way so she will stay. She has given birth in our yard to at least three litters indicating she must feel it a safe place.

She is doing her stick impression in the photos, where they suck in their sides too look skinnier. :-)