Winter's Day Outing

Winter's Day Outing

Postby Mehelya » Mon Jul 14, 2014 12:44 pm

On Saturday I went out for a short 2 hour stroll to just see what was happening in an area I haven't been to before. I didn't want to go too far off the beaten track, and chose a spot directly off the main road in the area.
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First thing I noticed were hundreds of these tiny little flowers all over the place. Any botanists who can identify indigenous plants, please help out here?!
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And a few of these as yet unidentified flowers... Botany anyone?
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Flipped a rock, and got this as a reward. I'm guessing Skaapsteker, but there were no more clues than these old egg shells, so I left it as it was before I got there, and hopefully next season some new progeny will appear there...
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Pachydactylus maculatus, the highlight of the outing was finding this little monster. Puffed itself up, raised up on all fours, and really went all out!
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We had an "ET" moment...
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These are quite rare around here, and I am glad to see them when I do...
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And after 20 minutes of battling to get this chap to sit still long enough to photograph, I resorted to a container, and a towel to get it to stand still for longer than 5 seconds. ID's I've been offered so far is Trachylepis capensis, and Trachylepis homalocephala. I think it may be Trachylepis varia. Any takers?
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Enjoy!
Rian
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Forceps. Not fingers...
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Re: Winter's Day Outing

Postby Jamster » Mon Jul 14, 2014 5:56 pm

The second budding plant looks like a red hot poker to me, but not 100% sure. Some Bulbine species look similar to that when budding. We're the leaves almost ribbon like or were they very fleshy?
1.0-reticulated python (Ripcord)
1.1-burmese pythons
5.5-brown house snakes
1.0-taiwanese ratsnake
3.8-BCI
1.1-corn snakes
1.2-rhombic skaapstekers
1.0-yellow rat snake
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Re: Winter's Day Outing

Postby Fooble » Tue Jul 15, 2014 10:15 am

Skink is Trachylepis capensis - Dorsal view makes it easy.

Trachylepis homalocephala
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Re: Winter's Day Outing

Postby Mehelya » Tue Jul 15, 2014 10:45 am

Jamster, I doubt it's a Kniphophia. I am going out again this weekend, and will see if it's opened up or changed color. The leaves were fleshy, but not overly so.

Thanks Fooble.capensis it is. ;) didn't realize they coud get so stout. Only ever seen them this size, and fast.
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Re: Winter's Day Outing

Postby Westley Price » Tue Jul 15, 2014 11:04 am

Great finds Rian. Not bad for a single afternoon in the veld.

T. capensis can be very similar to T. varia, especially when looking at younger animals, but the central dorsal line is absent from varia and present in capensis.

The P. maculatus is a stunner. One can even see the attitude in pictures. Attitude is not on the rugosus level, but pretty close ;)

Thanx for posting.
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Re: Winter's Day Outing

Postby Blet » Tue Jul 15, 2014 5:46 pm

yellow flowers...Bulbine sp?
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Re: Winter's Day Outing

Postby rolandslf » Wed Jul 16, 2014 10:18 am

Nice One Boet.
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Re: Winter's Day Outing

Postby kfc223 » Sat Jul 19, 2014 6:54 pm

Nice finds bud.
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