Readers’ wildlife photos

October 7, 2017 • 7:45 am

Tim Anderson from Oz sent us three pictures:

This is an Eastern Bearded Dragon (Pogona barbata), who I met on a country road, and who was clearly affronted by my intrusion on his demesne. What beautiful whiskers!

The bird is a Brown Falcon (Falco berigora),  one of the most common raptors in eastern Australia. I think this one might be a juvenile. In any case, it clearly regarded me as an inelegant creature.

The other is a rather dusty freshwater turtle crossing a road en route to a neighbouring farm dam. Which reminds me of a Yorkshire joke about a man who inquired at his local railway station whether he needed to buy a ticket for his turtle, who wished to travel. The station master replied (after consulting his rulebook):
Dogs is dogs, and cats is dogs,
And squirrels in cages is parrots,
But this here turkle is a hinseck
So you don’t got to pay.
Do any readers know the species?

10 thoughts on “Readers’ wildlife photos”

  1. Great photos.

    I don’t know what that species of turtle is, but just wanted to point out that most Australian turtle species are “side-necked”, unlike North American turtle species, which are hidden-necked, meaning they can retract their heads inside their shells for protection. I was once watching a talk on turtles, and the speaker claimed that the hidden-neck variety in Australia is referred to by aborigines as “turtle whose had goes in and out like man with woman”.

  2. It would help narrow down the options if I knew where the turtle was from. I’m not too terribly familiar with the 20-something species in OZ and related areas. My offhanded and entirely uneducated and inexperienced guess is Chelodina longicollis, the common or eastern long-necked turtle.

    2. Agreed. I’ve photographed these guys before due to their habit of wandering across roads

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