Greetings fellow Foxies,
 
Last June I discovered a long (30cm) reptile that I initially thought was a snake in leaf litter. It turned out to be Frasers Delma Delma fraseri.
Delmas are in the legless lizard family Pygopodiae, which are closely related to gekkos. Other names for them are flap-footed lizards or slithering gekkos. Like gekkos they have ears, can make noises, lay eggs, but they have no front legs and the rear legs are reduced to flaps. They have no eyelids and lick their eyes that are covered with a clear protective layer. This little critter hunts insects and grasshoppers.
The Australian Geographic to which we subscribe, has this great article

 
​Last week, while raking leaves I was excited to find another shorter ‘legless lizard’.
After taking many images, I noticed that it had dinky little legs that it used to push its body through the leaf litter.
Gadzooks! Hemiergis peronii. Peron's Earless Skink/ Lowlands Earless Skink/Four-Toed Earless Skink that is quite common in gardens. Mine was the three toed subspecies
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They have a movable clear lower eyelid and give birth to live young.
 
It is interesting how different families of lizards have evolved the same characters to become subsurface hunters.

Greetings fellow Foxies,
                                     I got a surprise yesterday when I lifted a sleeper in the bush and discovered a hibernating snake. It was only about 30cm long, as thick as a pencil, and very quiet.
My first impression was that it was a juvenile dugite or gwardar, but after extensive web searching am inclined to think that it is an adult Suta gouldii (Goulds black headed snake).
The difference is pretty important as this snake only grows to this length, is very retiring and only mildly venomous (i.e. no problem), whereas the adult others are highly venomous much larger and more assertive.
Apparently Goulds black headed snake differs from juveniles of the other in having a white line/area in front of its eyes but I find it difficult to tell.
Accurate differentiation can be achieved by examining the anal scales, but I lack skill and enthusiasm to check on a live snake.
I have seen quite few small snakes with black heads that were delivered to the office or under old pieces of corrugated iron in the bush, and feel a bit guilty about calling them all baby dugites.
Juvenile snake mortality is high. Some people have told me that they have seen a dugite in Foxes lair but in the 30 years I have only seen small ones and a magnificent Stimsons python.
Yet some people refuse to walk in Foxes Lair in summer due to perceived snake danger.
They are more likely to die from a car accident driving there, or blood clots from sitting in the house.

​Greetings fellow Foxies,
As soon as the weather warms up, you will see fist-sized holes with a round top and a flat base appearing in sandy and gravelly soils. These were dug by Varanus gouldii variously known as ‘racehorse goanna’ or a ‘sand goanna’ or even a Gould’s monitor. They commonly hide in hollow logs and may be seen sunning themselves on roads, rocks, and logs. They must be able to sense grubs or beetles in the soil.
Racehorse goannas may look fierce but always run away at great speed, which can frighten the daylights out of some. They have been rumoured to climb people, mistaking them for trees, but in my experience take off in the opposite direction. If you are a nervous type, just walk next to a tall person (who is also useful if there is a chance of lightning).

Western bearded dragons build similar but smaller holes, but are rarely seen. The shingleback lizard (bobtail skink - it isn't a goanna) is our most commonly seen reptile. These lovable reptiles try to look fierce, but are harmless. Please don't let dogs near them?

​Rainbow bee eater nesting burrows look similar to goanna diggings but are rounder and deeper, and occur in clusters. I used to see their nests in the road burden by the side of the track on the north side of the arboretum, but alas no longer. I suspect that chicks became goanna tucker, as  rainbow bee eaters normally burrow in gully walls that are harder for predators to reach.  Rainbow bee eaters appear in early summer. They are acrobats of the bird world being fast and agile, and doing loop the loops as they catch bees on the wing. They have a lovely rolling chirrup call. World War II Spitfire fighter planes copied their wing shape to maximise manoeuvrability.