Category Perth Hills

Herping with kids at Sullivan Rock

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The WA Naturalists held an excursion in August 2019 to Sullivan Rock. It’s worth checking out the club if you are interested in learning more about nature and meeting like-minded people.

Sullivan rock is found within the Monodocks conservation park. Its a large granite outcrop with Jarrah forest surrounding.

I decided to bring both my kids – Liam (5) and Sienna (nearly 3) as they love getting out into nature and it would give my lovely wife some rare time to herself. 2 others joined the excursion – so just a small group but perhaps best with 2 rowdy kids!

It was a lovely clear day but a little on the cool side. We were hoping for herps but cooler conditions are not condusive to seeing them out on the rocks.

Kids just starting out @ Sullivan Rock

The kids were excited and Liam remembered an earlier trip where he had seen some wildlife underneath rocks. Rock flipping is one way to find critters especially when its a cool day – but we must remember these are their homes so it is critical to replace the rock exactly as found. Rocky outcrops are places that, while they might not seem it, are fragile habitats. So driving on rocks, stacking rocks or taking them home all affect the fauna and fauna that live there.

The car park is on Albany Highway and directions can be found here, then head carefully across the highway and follow a small segment of the Bibbulmun track.

Kids exploring just before getting on the rock @ Sullivan Rock

The kids enjoyed the walk in – I gave them instructions to walk on the bare rock and not the moss patches. The moss only hangs onto the bare granite rock face and is therefore very fragile.

Flora growing on bare rock @ Sullivan rock

Amongst the moss patches other plants were found such as Coral lichen (Cladia sp.), a grey lichen with Resurrection Plants (or Pincushions, Borya sphaerocephala) – the spiky plants seen on the right hand side. During dry periods they look pretty much dead.

On the top of the outcrop we found a number of pools with aquatic fauna and the kids were pleased to find some tadpoles. We were unsure of the species but likely to be Crinia sp. The kids were fascinated to watch water boatman ‘paddle’ around the pond.

We crossed to the other side of the rock stopping for some morning tea. It’s important to keep snack levels high. We found some climbing sundew or Drosera which the kids were fascinated to learn is insectivorous. The cups produce an insect attractant but the surrounding sticky tentacles will curl in to trap any hapless insect that gets into the cup.

Drosera @ Sullivan Rock

On the way back more pool exploring was required with more tadpoles found.

Lots to explore in the pools – can you see the tadpole?

We kept carefully checking rocks as we were hopeful to find some brumating (reptile version of hibernating) Ornate dragon lizards (Ctenophorus ornatus) but none were found this time. The easily accessible parts of the rock get a fair amount of traffic and are disturbed.

In amongst the grey lichen we noticed some tiny orchids only 3-4cms tall.

Orchids amongst lichen @ Sullivan Rock

We then headed for home. The kids had so much fun and thoroughly enjoyed being out exploring in nature.

Searching for Quokka in Jarrahdale..

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I have been looking for mainland Quokka (Setonix brachyurus) for sometime and saw information that people had found some in Jarrahdale. While they were careful not to disclose the exact location I saw some facebook chat about a location a little out of the main strip of Jarrahdale where people had seen Quokka in the mornings, so wanted to check it out.

I took my 4 year old son Liam for a drive hoping we might get lucky and find some Quokka’s enjoying breakfast. We took off a little later than planned but made good time to the location.


We crossed a bridge over a dried up river so the habitat seemed good with thick riparian vegetation but also with a fair few blackberry bushes. Once we found the spot (a gravel parking area fringed by forest) we parked up and waited for some movement.

We waited for some time (as long as a 4 year old can sit still!) and then jumped out of the car to take a closer look. We skirted the fringing vegetation and quickly found this likely looking scat. While I can’t rule it out as Western grey kangaroo it had the features of a Quokka scat – size 1-2cm, cuboid and slightly flattened. These were also fresher than the ones I had previously found in the Canning Dam region.

  • Possible Quokka scat @ Jarrahdale

When walking through the fringing vegetation we found we had we had to be careful even with the small little seedlings on the ground as they were often Blackberries with nasty thorns.

  • Liam pointing to the scat @ Jarrahdale

We headed towards the bridge and we heard something mid-sized move suddenly in the vegetation but it was too thick to see properly. Given the likely scat I think this is my unconfirmed closest encounter with a mainland Quokka – but I will have to try again! 🙂

Heading back to the car we found this amazing bug – the wonderful iNaturalist & awesome bug ID app MyPestGuide Reporter – run by the Agriculture Department’s entomologists on the hunt for the next nasty pest! Through both avenues it was ID’d as a Red-banded seed eating bug (Melanerythrus mactans).

20190304-2019-03-04 08.35.22
Red-headed seed-eating bug @ Jarrahdale

Searching for Quokkas at Canning dam…

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I am currently behind on my posts – so this is actually from January!

I decided to continue my hunt for mainland Quokka’s (Setonix brachyurus) in the greater Perth region. Despite what most people are aware of – they don’t only live on Rottnest Island where they are easy to find, they can also be found on the mainland, but are much rarer and cryptic. I have looked in the Canning dam area before as I found a paper and it listed
Midgegoroo National Park as one of the trapping sites where they had caught animals. My brother was down from Port Hedland and he was keen to join me as well for a late night spotlight.

We started off looking for herps in the Canning Dam proper – parking near the gate and walking up the road looking for eyeshine. It took some time walking around before we found our first Barking gecko (Underwoodisaurus milii).

Barking gecko @ Canning Dam

We then headed further down towards Albany Hwy to my Quokka spot – I was pleased to have company as it’s an isolated spot. On the way we found a freshly road-killed Carpet python (Morelia spilota) – such a shame. There must be a few around as this is the second dead specimen I have found and my friend Jimmy found one on a previous trip.

  • Roadkilled Carpet python @ Canning Dam Rd

  • Roadkilled Carpet python @ Canning Dam Rd

We drove down a gravel track and parked as close as to the location as we could. I have had information from a scientist that Quokka’s are found in West facing streams in riparian vegetation – which means it’s tough to get through. We spotted a couple of kangaroos in the distance and heard the yipping of a fox but didn’t see any Quokka – strike 2!

We found some scat that I can’t say is 100% Quokka but the size seems right and it was cubic and slightly flattened.

We also found some diggings and then scat which I believe is feral pig.

An interesting night in the correct habitat for Quokka’s but I think if any were around they would have disappeared as we came crashing through the thick scrub! Another observation was this cricket that I am hoping to get a proper ID on iNaturalist – currently thought to be one of the Raspy cricket family (Gryllacrididae).

We had a good night – perhaps a hint of a Quokka but I need to keep looking for a confirmed sighting and photo!

Swanview Tunnel & John Forrest National Park

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It was the end of school third term and I took the holidays off to spend time with the family.  My wife Mel works & daughter Sienna goes to daycare respectively 2 days a week so Liam & I dropped the girls off and then headed for the hills!

Our first idea was to look for bats in the Swanview tunnel that can be found in John Forrest National Park.  We brought our torches and a packed morning tea.  The parking can be found here.  See below for the map of the tunnel site.  The tunnel opened in 1896 and the track has been preserved as a John Forrest heritage trail.

We headed for the tunnel taking the old railpath which is used by walkers, mountain bikers and lots of mums with prams & bubs! There was some water in the tunnel but the torches kept us of of trouble.  Unfortunately no bats were seen.

Liam in socks!
Liam checking out the workers testing the tunnel for something!
Torches are fun!
Tree roots coming in through the roof

Once through the tunnel we walked past the site of an old train crash in 1896 – see below pic for the story.

We really enjoyed our snacks after working up quite an appetite.

Food time

Lots of birds were seen on our walk as below.
28 Parrots @ John Forrest NP
Grey butcherbird @ John Forrest NP
Galah @ John Forrest NP
Yellow thornbill @ John Forrest NP

We enjoyed some close views of Red-tailed black cockatoos eating gumnuts.

Red-tailed black cockatoo @ John Forrest NP
Red-tailed black cockatoo @ John Forrest NP
Red-tailed black cockatoo @ John Forrest NP

We then headed back through the tunnel once more checking out the water.

 

After the tunnel we saw a distant rainbow bee-eater harassing a Little eagle!

Little eagle @ John Forrest NP
Little eagle @ John Forrest NP
Little eagle @ John Forrest NP
Little eagle buzzed by Rainbow bee-eaters! @ John Forrest NP

We had had a lovely morning walk and recommend this walk – lovely for kids and the tunnel is something very different.

View towards from the hills.

Sullivan Rock Herping

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I have been wanting to go out herping in the colder weather for a while now.  It’s a good time when reptiles can be found brumating (the reptile version of hibernating) and can be quite sluggish giving good views up close.

Jimmy was again game to join me with my 4 year old son and we managed to pick a beautiful clear winters day, but with some rain looming in the evening.  We headed out at midday with Liam enjoying the car trip.

Liam enjoying an audio book on the trip out

We headed to Sullivan Rock on Albany Hwy in Mt Cooke – it’s where the Bibbulmun  track crosses the highway and there is a good sized car park.  We crossed the road following the track where it crosses Sullivan Rock.

As we got to the rock we headed East to get to some areas where we thought less people would visit.  Along the way we lifted rocks looking for reptiles – always carefully placing the rock back in exactly the same spot to minimise disturbance.  Many rocky outcrops in the Perth Hills have been damaged with people taking rocks for their gardens, rock cairns being built, vehicles driven on the rocks damaging habitat and rocks just generally being moved.  Many living things use the rocks as habitat – so they must be treated with care.

The first reptile we found was a Barking gecko (Underwoodisaurus milii).  This is a pretty cool gecko that, when threatened, will raise its whole body up on its legs and ‘bark’ like a small dog.  This one was pretty sluggish and ambled off underneath another rock.

Barking gecko @ Sullivan Rock

The next thing we found was a scorpion under a rock – Liam was very keen to touch but we had to insist it was a bad idea!

Jimmy lifting the rock with Liam examining

We enjoyed a picnic lunch on the rock and then kept looking.  There was quite a lot of water seeping down the rock but we didn’t find any frogs under the wet rocks or in some of the rock pools.

We found a couple of small skinks that moved off too quickly to ID or photograph.

We then found a family of Ornate crevice dragons (Ctenophorus ornatus) – there was one larger with three smaller.  Three of them dashed off to another rock but one just sat there, pretty much motionless.

Liam touching a crevice dragon
Liam touching a crevice dragon
Ornate crevice dragon @ Sullivan rock

We then headed for home – pleased we had found 3-4 species of reptiles and really giving Liam a good nature experience.  He loved his time and had been so good clambering over the rocks.  He was pretty tired after this and got a few Zzz’s in the car on the way home!