Hey guys,

I spent a week in Cairns earlier this month "visiting family" Needless to say I got out a fair bit looking for animals.

No taipans unfortunately, not because of a lack of trying either.




It rained a lot of the time so the spotlighting along rainforest tracks were pretty frog and leech packed.
This beautiful frog is an Orange-Thighed Tree Frog.



Jess' dad runs a quarry just outside Cairns which has some old abandoned buildings out the back. We went through them hoping for snakes but there were just bats and geckos. There must've been about 500 of the sheath-tailed bats in this building, the floor was littered with quoll and snake poo.



Skinks like this Carlia rostralis are confident enough to climb onto your hand if you hold out a fly, it might take a few minutes but they will often lose all fear of you when you do things the right way.




Happy skink.



I can't remember the species of this little frog, some sort of Microhylid. Tiny little frogs even when adults.




Green-Eyed Tree Frog (Litoria serrata). Quite a common frog in the rainforests around Cairns. Cool looking toe pads.



A juvinile Northern Barred Frog.




I lived in Cairns for a couple of years and always wanted to see a local Black-Headed Python and only found the odd roadkill. This one turned up on a track that I've driven heaps of times, must've been 2am when we bumped into it too.






A drive up Mt Lewis in Julattan and stopped to check likely spots found us 3 large Red-Bellied Blacksnakes. As usual the birdlife up there was pretty good. Blue-Faced Parrot Finches, Superb Fruit Doves, Top-Knot Pidgeons, Golden Bowerbirds and Spotted Cat Birds were all welcome sightings. Jess is more of a birder then I am but when the reptiles are a bit slow... Shame I don't have the right camera gear for bird photography.



This head belongs to a Chemeleon Gecko. I think I have better shots in other posts about North Queensland wildlife.




Northern Leaf-Tailed Geckos (S. cornutus) never get old. We found heaps while spotlighting the rainforest. With the right headtorch and trained eyes you can spot their eyeshine from a mile away (not actually a mile ).





We saw two Boyd's Forest Dragons on our last afternoon. Awesome lizards that spend most of their life in the trees. Both of these were found on the ground digging test burrows for the the eggs they were carrying.




I ducked out to my old home Trinity Beach and had a flick around the headland. I was slowly twitching and pausing a rapala subwalk thingy when it got pumped. After a good fight this 70cm GT came to the sand. Managed to dislodge the hooks that wrre pretty light guage without causing serious injury to the fish.

Wel that about it for Cairns.

Cheers,

Sheebs.

top photos mate....good stuff

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Top photos mate. I am guessing that GT really wanted that lure

Unreal Sheeby. Love the frog & gecko photos. Looks like the red belly was getting a bit 'snakey' with it's head flattening out like that. A pleasure to see your shots, as always.

Brilliant shots again Sheeby. Thanks again.

Ahh McCain, you've done it again
bl..dy brilliant
I hope you dont mind that I have collected your pics and Im doing a coffee table book

Thanks mate, send me a copy!

Thanks for the replies fellas.

Yeah Smed, it wasn't real happy with me and my mate getting photo's of it



Sheebs.

There shitt Sheeby, as usual! Love that camilion gecko. Freaky lookin critter

As usual bl..dy great pics Sheeby...


Well done...

You should post a few on one of the US forums, they go nuts for our stuff

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Ripper shots again Sheeby top stuff. Where you using a macro for the close up on the frog nice detail

Cheers boys.

Yeah Ibbsy, using a 105mm Sigma macro for a lot of the shots. A lot cheaper the a 105mm cannon lens but the quality is just as good.

Hey Angry, I occasionally post pics up on an international reptile forum. People always want what they can't have haha.

Thanks Pete, I'll tell you where to find them next time you go to Cairns

Sheebs.

Awesome work Sheeby.Very proffesional.You really have that macro singing (so to speak). That cameleon ghecko is a strange looking dude,love the tree frog fantastic colours.
What editing softwear do you use? I mainly use adobe lightroom I find it a lot simpler to use than photoshop and it"s a lot cheaper.Cheers.

Tezza

G'day Tezza.

Thanks mate. I use Lightroom as well. Yep I had a look at photoshop a couple of years ago and it was to confusing.

Sheebs.

Sheeby they are some realy great photos mate! Thanks for shareing your obvious passion of Australian Tropical wildlife.
Cheers.

Cheers mate.