G'day All,

I have been meaning to post the following sightings for awhile, and Jon's
email has prompted me to finally do it.

Last September to November I had the privilege of tossing my swag into the
4WD (& all set up for such a trip), and heading off to the Centre, the
Kimberley, Pilbara and back down the Centre of NT into SA and Port Augusta,
across to Gluepot and finally home to Nth Vic. I travelled over 18,000
kilometres.

The trip from Nth Vic took me via the Flinders & Gammon Ranges, a brief
foray up the Stretzlecki Track, up the wide open spaces of the Oodndatta
Track & onto the Alice with a bit of the West McDonnell Ranges thrown in. I
continued across the remote Tanami Track with a look in at Newhaven
Sanctuary and the Canning Stock Route. I then ventured into the wilds of the
Kimberley, visiting various of the Gorge National Parks and a time at
Mornington Sanctuary helping with the granivore bird surveys there - great!
Travelling up the Gibb River Road, I went up onto the Mitchell Plateau and
had a time I'll long remember there. After going back down to the coast to
Derby and Broome, I went further south to the Pilbara and then returned
north along the Great Northern Highway to Wyndham & Kununurra and into the
NT to Katherine and south once more.

The wild desert places, the rough and remote lands of the Kimberley and
Pilbara with their startling colours, wild gorges, jump-ups, plateaus and
scrubby plains were, as always fantastic. Nights under the stars with my
swag and enjoying the solitude and wildlife was very satisfying. The
savannah woodlands and coastal wetlands added much to the diversity and
wonder of the wildlife and flora I enjoyed on the trip. I finished with a
stop over in the Mallee at Gluepot, a veritable garden of Eden after good
late winter and spring rains. The country simply rang with the calls of
birds and every plant seemed to be flowering.

My trip was mainly to look for and enjoy wildlife and I had a great time. I
was not able to do as much mammal searching as I wished but, I had, for me,
some outstanding sightings of mammals.

I picked up ten new mammal species for my life list, (now now about 114),
and enjoyed seeing a good range of others. Among the ones I most enjoyed was
getting good views of a Black-flanked Rock Wallaby near Alice Springs,
spotlighting a Spectacled Hare Wallaby on the Tanami Track, a Northern Quoll
invading my swag one night, seeing the Short-eared Rock Wallaby (with it
tuffed tail) at Bell Gorge in the Kimberley and great views of the Monjon &
Nabarlek (like crosses between a Brush-tailed Possum and a very tiny
Wallaby) and a Least (Northern) Blossom Bat at Mitchell Plateau. I enjoyed
seeing the Northern Nail-tail Wallaby in a few places, as with the
Antilopine Wallaroo. At Gluepot I was really 'tickled' to get some great
sights (and photos) of some Western Pygmy Possums. Apart from these first
sightings I enjoyed at Gluepot great sightings also of Mallee Ningaui and
Bolam's Mouse.

Below is my mammal list for the trip, and also a reptile and butterfly list.
I hope to post a bird species list and report on Birding-aus another day.

Regards,

Chris Coleborn


SPECIES SEEN ON NTH VICTORIA TO KIMBERLEY AND BACK TRIP

SEPT-NOV 2005

. = New Species



MAMMALS

Short-beaked Echidna

.Northern Quoll

Mallee Ningaui

Common Dunnart

Striped-faced Dunnart

.Western Pygmy Possum

.Spectacled Hare Wallaby

Agile Wallaby

.Antilopine Wallaroo

Eastern Grey Kangaroo

Western Grey Kangaroo

Red Kangaroo

Euro

.Northern Nailtail Wallaby

.Short-eared Rock Wallaby

.Monjon

.Nabarlek

.Black-flanked Rock Wallaby

Yellow-footed Rock Wallaby

.Least (Northern) Blossom Bat

Black Flying-fox

Little Red Flying-fox

Yellow-bellied Sheathtail Bat

White-striped Freetail (Mastiff) Bat

Water Rat

House Mouse

Bolam's Mouse

Red Fox

Dingo

Feral House Cat

European Rabbit

Brown Hare

Feral Goat

Feral Horse

Feral Donkey

One-humped Camel

Feral Cattle

Feral Pig





REPTILES

.Northern Long-necked Turtle

Beaded Gecko

.Gehyra Pilbara Gecko

.Gehyra variegate Gecko

Smooth Knob-tailed Gecko (Nephrurus levis levis)

Beaked Gecko

.Northern Spiny-tailed Gecko

.Delma Australia Legless Lizard

.Delma butleri Legless Lizard

Burton's Snake Lizard

.Carlia munda Skink

.Carlia triacantha Skink

Cryptoblepharus carnabyi Skink

Ctenotus inornatus Skink

Lerista muelleri Skink

.Morethia boulengeri Skink

.Centralian Blue-tongue

.Western Blue-tongue

Shingle-back

Gilbert's Dragon (Ta-ta Lizard)

Frilled Lizard

Mallee Military Dragon

Central Military Dragon

.Lake Eyre Dragon

Painted Dragon

Diporiphora amhemica Dragon

.Diporiphora bennitti Dragon

Thorny Devil

Central Bearded Dragon

Sand (Gould's) Goanna

.Mertens' Water Monitor

.Mitchell's Water Monitor

.Yellow-spotted Monitor

.Black-headed Monitor (Freckled form)

Common Tree Snake (Bright Yellow form)

.Australian Coral Snake

.Yellow-faced Whipsnake

Orange-naped Snake

King Brown

Western Brown Snake

.Myall (Curl) Snake





BUTTERFLIES

.Fuscous Swallowtail

Checkered Swallowtail

.Lemon Migrant

.Orange Migrant

.Pink Grass-yellow

Small Grass-yellow

.Large Grass-yellow

.Caper Gull

.Scarlet Jezebel

Spotted Jezebel

Caper White

.Narrow-winged Pearl-white

Cabbage White

.Orange Ringlet

.Glasswing

.Varied Eggfly

Meadow Argus

.Blue Argus (Wet Season Form)

Australian Painted Lady

Common Crow

Lesser Wanderer

.Satin Azure meridionalis

.Silky Azure oroetes

Saltbush Blue

Common Grass-blue