A nice surprise

[Baccus]

The other day we where doing some much needed pond renovations (1000L) namely removing all the lilys, water weed and fish so that the pond could be relevelled. Once the pond was empty all but a few litres, it was time to lift it on one side to help drain some more of the water. It was in the lifting process that I saw something quick, slithering and decidedly snake like under the pond. I told hubby in a calm matter of fact voice to put the pond down and step away, he hates snakes and would have run a mile if I hinted I may have seen one. Which in some regards is a safe thing to do since we have Eastern Brown snakes in the area, which are deadly and not afraid to strike at people.
From the quick glimsp I had seen I was not certain that the critter was a snake but I also wanted to 100% certain for our safety, our four legged pets safety and our various neighbours kids. The tail shape and head shape was what had me nearly certain it wasn't a snake but the band on the back of the head was very much like a couple of local snake species.
So I found a high sided bucket to put in front of the critter and a stick to give it a nudge in the right direction.
Lucky for all involved it turned out to be a variety of skink commonly called a legless lizard. He was very fat, shiny and healthy and after the photo shoot and the pond was back in place refilled he got let go back to his home.



Being a burrowing lizard the sand was put in the bucket to keep it calm and feeling safe hidden away underneath.



As you can see in the last couple of photos it does have tiny little legs, but with it quickly slithering for cover they are well hidden being pulled in close to the body.
Thankfully for it I identified it before killing it outright. And if it had of been a venomous snake the lid would have been whipped on to the bucket in a flash and the snake would have been relocated out to some nearby bush land.

 

[Toney]

Cool

 

[GobyMaster11276]

Nice legless lizard.

 

[Ch4rlie]

Oh, that is interesting, if remember right, theres quite a few species of legless skinks in Australia.

How large is that one? Most are smallish, maybe a few inches to a feet long being pretty common.

Australia actually has a wonderful variety of skinks and lizards that it is actually really interesting to study, if anyone is ever bored I urge them to have a little study on skinks, they can be found all over the world really.

The UK sadly does not really have any natural wild skinks but lots of slow worms, adders and grass snakes as well as perhaps sand lizards (which think was introduced but made the UK environment their own) I forget exactly but thats the general idea when I studied them quite a while ago when I first found a slow worm and wondered what it was and led me to study further

Anyway, he looks nice and healthy, thanks for sharing

 

[Baccus]

He (?) was probably around the 30 cm mark if not a little longer, certainly a good size and very healthy. Years ago for a short time I had a Burtons legless lizard and would love to find another one, but sadly they usually eat other lizards/ skinks....but could come in handy for helping dispose of the pest Asian geckos that are taking over Australia.
The other day at work I was very excited to see a frill neck lizard (see them so rarely), it was hanging around an area I was mowing and catching the insects as I disturbed them. I didn't mind the lizard but was worried about him getting too ingrossed in eating and forgetting that the ride on mower would make mince meat of him. The same day I also had 3 bearded dragons come out and join in the insect feast.

Australia might be considered the land of parrots but we certainly have plenty of reptiles too.

I thought Adders where quite rare in parts of England now, and slow worms are actually a type of legless lizard aren't they? At least grass snakes I believe are harmless and you only have to worry about adders, I have a lucky dip of whats venomous and likely to kill you on my doorstep.

 

[Ch4rlie]

Yes, quite correct, Adders are not commonly seen at all, I have only ever seen one Adder in my life. And yes, slow worms are a specie of legless lizard as well hence why I mentioned it on my earlier post.

You saw a Frilled Dragon Lizard? wow, am sooooo jealous, I would pay good money to see a wild frilled lizard tbh.

30 cm is a decent size for that Legless Skink btw, nice

 

[Baccus]

I saw a bigger frill neck at Turkey Beach last year (hadn't seen one for over 15 years prior to that) but it high tailed it away from me and I only got one semi decent picture of it.


Sadly the frill neck I saw had work I only had my phone camera with me and it wasn't up to the task of getting decent pictures, also it wasn't a very large frilly.

Years ago I saw a HUGE goanna also near Turkey Beach and probably 5/6 years ago I saw a nice little sand goanna at Yeppoon. Goannas are getting few and far between thanks to cane toads, but then that is true for a lot of Aussie natives that cant eat the poisonous cane toads. Populations are getting decimated on two fronts, animals large enough to try and eat a cane toad get poisoned by it and usually die, while anything young/small gets eaten by cane toads.

In my yard I have at least 3 species of lizard (one of which is the legless - there may even be a smaller species of legless living in my bird aviary), hopefully still some blind snakes (good because they eat ants and termites), hundreds of the pest Asian gecko. 4 or 5 species of frog (6 if you include cane toads) and various birds that visit ranging from finches and willy wagtails to parrots/cockatoos and magpies along with one nuisance Harrier and the odd heron.

 

[GobyMaster11276]

You're so lucky! Down south we only see a few species of birds (by a few I mean maybe 20-30, mainly magpies, noisy miners, crows, galahs and rainbow lorikeets), the occasional garden skink and sometimes possums. I haven't seen a wild frog for about six years, and luckily the cane toads aren't here. Yet.

 

[DrRob]

I've seen a fair few sleepy lizards in the South. Bizarrely my best lizard spotting (apart from geckos) was in the Maldives, known for not supporting many, but I saw a whole load of Oriental Garden Lizards and some Lygosoma albopunctata.

We have grass snakes in the garden. They love the pond and the compost bins, which probably isn't good for the goldfish population. The ducks eat the small snakes though, but they do keep the rats down. Haven't seen an adder in ages.

 

[Baccus]

You're so lucky! Down south we only see a few species of birds (by a few I mean maybe 20-30, mainly magpies, noisy miners, crows, galahs and rainbow lorikeets), the occasional garden skink and sometimes possums. I haven't seen a wild frog for about six years, and luckily the cane toads aren't here. Yet.

I'll try to list all the birds that come to my yard
Sulpher Crested Cockatoos
Short Billed Corellas
Galahs
Pale Headed Parrots (rosella)
Red WIng Parrots
Rainbow Lorikeets
White Rumped Double Bar Finches
Chestnut Breasted Finches
Nutmeg Mannikins
Plum Headed FInches
Willy Wagtails
Rufus Wagtails
Mistletole Birds
Ibis
Forest Kingfishers
Kookaburras (sometimes)
White Faced Heron
Harriar
Grey (White) Goshawk
Magpies
Pewees
Butcherbirds
Crows
Fig Birds
Common Koels
Spangled Drongos (in the summer months)
Black Faced Cuckoo Shrike
Babblers
Brown Honeyeater
Peaceful Doves
Crested (topknot) Pigeons
Sparrows (introduced)
Before the new estates went in over the back I used to also get Red Backed Wrens, and if I lived closer to the coast I would get Yellow Bellied Sunbirds which are beautiful and I wish came to my yard.

At night I know I get the odd Boobook owl
and Tawny Frogmouth
I also regularly see a Peregrine Falcon hunting through the neighbourhood.

Also at night during summer I have insectivorous Bats which I love watching hunt around the front street light in the dusk.

So aside from my actual pets my yard is a thriving metropolis of native and some introduced species, the only thing I am dreading is when the Indian Mynas get here they are already just on the out skirts of town and getting closer.
No possoms here that I know of but I did hear one the other night calling and I think it was a brushtail. If any possoms did move in I would dearly love for them to be the feathertailed gliders, I LOVE them.

 

[Ch4rlie]

Is that all?

 

[StandbySetting]

I'm lucky if I see a cat outside my house....

I visited Australia twice, I hope to emmigrate one day, the wildlife really is incredible.

 

[Baccus]

Is that all?

Well if I wanted to get down to the knitty gritty I would include the insects, arachnids (including ticks), and molluscs and some of the rarer seen birds or even the magpie geese, black swans, broglas, whistling ducks, kite hawks, cockatiels, occasional wedge tail that all fly over my place on a daily basis and the two blue tongues that I know where in my yard but have not been seen for a long time. Once I was even lucky enough to see a large flock of wild budgies fly over, they had come in to get away from the drought out further west.

 

[Ch4rlie]

Hah!

And here is me looking at just now some crows, a magpie, pidgeons and the neighbour's cat....

A whole world of difference!

 

[thrujenseyes]

Thanks for sharing! That is really very cool! I've never seen one of these!
I'm in South Jersey in the woods and we have tons of snakes and such but that is pretty darn cool!
We've also just recently started spotting coyote ...as excited as I was to see one a few months back the encounters happening haven't been good as they're very bold and scrappy and are going after family pets (no matter how large).

lol to the person up there who's "lucky if they see a cat in their yard". That was funny