Hey, everyone! I have had some crazy wildlife sightings this past week – with two trips to Fogg Dam being the most bountiful. Fogg Dam Conservation Reserve is home to a wide variety of wildlife. It originally was built as a rice farm… but every year, the birds would come eat all the rice! Since then, it has become home to fresh and saltwater crocodiles, thousands of snakes, birds, turtles, fish, etc. Visiting the spot was an absolute treat.

Fogg Dam by Day

A few days after visiting Kakadu National Park, John and I drove to Fogg Dam. The road into the reserve actually turns into the dam wall itself – one side is filled with water, essentially a lake or billabong, the other side is more marshy/swampland. We started the day by exploring the length of the dam – looking at birds and checking the water for crocodiles. Mostly, we were just seeing birds. So many birds. Mostly egrets, but there were plenty of ibis/bin chickens as well as whistling ducks. At one point, I thought I saw a jabiru flying, but I could be wrong. We also saw the comb-crested jacana (or “Jesus birds”) again, John’s favorite.

There are a few lookouts at Fogg Dam. Two of them look over the water, but one of them is two stories and looks out into the marshy area where the birds hang out. We sat and watched the birds play for a while, hiding in the shade.

Just as we were getting up to leave the viewing platform, I spotted… a water buffalo! It came bulldozing across the field, sending dozens of birds flying into the sky. It stopped running and would look up at the birds. It started to wag its tail. And then it would start charging again, sending even more birds into the sky. It truly seemed like sending the birds into flight was bringing the buffalo joy. It was the cutest thing to witness and had we left a moment sooner, we would have missed it. Ah, wildlife.

From there, we drove to a hiking trail that John hadn’t done before but wanted to do. We were mostly in the shade, with tall trees on either side of us for majority of the hike. At times, we would cross small bridges built over creeks. There were also sections of mangroves.

The trail felt like snake territory, as there were dried, fallen leaves on either side of the trail and on the trail itself. My friend Jason had once told me that majority of snake bites happen when walking over or near piles of dead leaves. The snakes like to burrow under the leaves for extra insulation. And even though I knew it was snake territory, when I spotted one, it scared the hell out of me.

I heard a quick rustling to my right and looked over immediately. I’ve gotten familiar with these sounds – usually it is a little lizard scurrying away but not this time. It was a very thin, bright orange snake and it was zooming away at the speed of light over a fallen tree, into obscurity. “OMFG,” I was screaming. “Holy shit!” “What?” John asked. Then he spotted it too, just as its tail was slipping over the tree. I was very rattled. While I knew snakes would likely be in the area, and I was on high alert for them, I was not expecting to… not spot it? And I certainly wasn’t expecting it to be moving so quickly. Every other snake I’ve seen so far has been in calmer conditions and it has never made me freak out before. I suppose it really was the speed and the unexpectedness. Luckily, it wasn’t moving that quickly towards me.

Later, I asked a Facebook “Naturalists” group if they could help me identify the snake. Unfortunately, it was all so quick and scary, that I wasn’t able to get a picture. I wasn’t even thinking of a picture. Species of snakes can display a wide range of colors, but the general trend seemed to be that people were thinking it was an orange tree snake, which aren’t venomous. Someone else suggested a juvenile eastern brown (which is very venomous). Either way, it’s lucky that the snake was moving away from and not towards us. Even so, I always carry snake bandages with me haha.

After seeing the snake, I came to the realization that every time I’ve seen a snake, it has been with a friend. Liam, Kory, Steve, and now John. How interesting! Perhaps the universe knows that I wouldn’t handle seeing a snake on my own very well haha.

One we finished our hike, we drove back into the city for a bite to eat at the Stoke Hill Wharf during sunset. I got veggie laksa, which is practically all I ate in Darwin because it was just so good.

A couple of days later, some people had mentioned that Fogg Dam was an excellent spot to check out at nighttime, too. At times, crocs lay out in the middle of the road. Someone said they saw ten water pythons one night. I messaged John to see if he was interested and sure enough… he was!

Fogg Dam by Night

I have to give the caveat now that this nighttime excursion at Fogg Dam felt like I had plugged in a “cheat code” for wildlife. It was… insane.

We arrived during the last moment of daylight. All that was left was a thin strip of light sitting atop the horizon. The stars were already out. John parked 1/3 of the way along the dam. We decided we would get out at certain points, walk for a while, then drive to the next stop.

John and I both had torches, although his was far superior to mine. He was the spotter – looking in the water, along the trees. I kept my torch on the road, making sure the snakes and crocs wouldn’t startle and kill us. It actually was kind of spooky. I had heard there were death adder snakes at Fogg Dam sometimes, and those guys are very venomous, so I certainly had my wits about me. And crocs, too! They are absolute killers. Lean over the edge of the water, and one could bite your head off if it was lurking in the shallows. So, yeah, we were being careful. Trying, anyway.

The first win of the night was seeing a huntsman again. It was resting on a beam on one of the viewing platforms. John had to survey the area and make sure there were no other snakes or spiders before I would enter the platform haha. I carefully approached and snapped a pic. We were lucky enough to see two more huntsmen that night – another on the second viewing platform, and one on a tree.

Another common visitor that evening was frogs. They were everywhere! We would watch them hop along the road. Mostly we saw what I think are common tree frogs, but we also saw these really teeny-tiny frogs hanging out on one of the viewing platform banisters. Adorable!

John spotted a long-necked turtle in the swampland area and shortly after, we spotted another one crossing the road. How fun to see it out of the water, considering I’d only seen them in the water at Howard Springs when I first arrived in Darwin.

And then… perhaps the ultimate for me, was spotting a giant centipede. If you know me well, you know that centipedes are my biggest fear. They terrify me. Perhaps something to do with a bad LSD trip when I was a teenager? Haha. My last year in Chicago, I had centipedes in my apartment three times. Not wanting to kill them, I had to remove them with the cup & paper trick. Dealing with the centipedes had me shaking and hyperventilating. I had to call my friends for moral support to talk me through it on the phone (it was late at night). So, yeah, I do not like centipedes. And yet… those were house centipedes. This guy didn’t seem to frighten me as much, although it also wasn’t on the wall of my bedroom, so that probably had something to do with it haha. The Australian centipedes are larger than the American ones and are a different species as well. This guy is a “giant centipede,” and it was really cool to spot him.

We also spotted the famed cane toads that I mentioned last week. Nobody likes them here in Australia because they are poisonous and have killed lots of the endemic wildlife since their introduction to Australia.

John had wanted to spot a snake all night. I did, too, but I also was a little scared-y cat with my weak torch that only shined a few meters in front of me (and poorly at that). Because my torch was so weak, I would occasionally say to John, “what’s that?” and have him shine his much brighter torch to identify what it was I was looking at. At one point, I asked him to shine his light and realized it was just the glint of an old beer can, but then John goes, “Snake!” And sure enough! A water python. What a treat! It was cruising by at a gentle speed, not caring much about us. What a beauty. John was so thrilled. I was, too, but John was very thrilled. I think after he had missed the bulk of the snake from the other day, he was happy he was able to spot this one in all its glory.

We both agreed that it felt like teamwork, because had I not asked John to shine his torch in that spot, we likely would not have seen the snake!

Having reached the pinnacle of the night, we began to leave Fogg Dam. We passed by some other people who were “herping” (Remember that term? When someone is actively hunting for reptiles/amphibians) and I told John to ask them if they had seen anything. “Yep, we saw some crocs back there… I got a picture holding one, want to see?” It was a small freshwater crocodile. I cannot believe this dude got in the water and grabbed a crocodile. It seemed like a pretty dumb idea to me. We decided to do one last scout, looking for crocs but to no avail. The snake was destined to be our highlight of the night.

Funnily enough, on the drive back we even got a couple of “cherries on top”. On the side of the road was another wild dog that I was certain was a dingo. By the time we’d pulled around to get another look, it was gone. John maintains it was a wild dog and not a dingo.

And lastly, sitting in the middle of the highway was my good friend, the tawny frogmouth. It was just sitting there looking at us. I had only ever seen them in Tasmania, but here was another one and in the oddest of places. Luckily, we didn’t run it over. It didn’t even fly away! An omen, perhaps.

John and I were certainly on a high from such an exciting night. All this incredible wildlife. Wow. It had just been a full moon, so I was suggesting that perhaps that had something to do with all the critters coming out to play.

Frilled-Neck Lizards

You may remember last week about how I was obsessing about finding frilled-neck lizards.

Now, what even are frilled-neck lizards? Have you ever seen the original Jurassic Park movies? Remember the one dinosaur who frills up the collar around his neck as its screeching? Well, frilled-neck lizards are the inspiration for those dinosaurs. The folds of the frill are actually attached to their jaw, so when they open their mouth, their frills go up. They are capable of bipedal locomotion, which is running on their hind legs. When they’re feeling threatened, they might chase you with their frilled-neck up, running on their hind legs. Honestly, Google it haha. They are also very well-camoflauged and quite shy creatures.

I had posted on a couple of different platforms to see if anyone had spotted them recently. Aaron, a guy from the Naturalists group, had posted that he saw some baby “frillies” just a couple of days prior. “So, they are around,” I thought, despite some people having claimed they haven’t seen any for years. They prefer the wet over the dry season, so much of the time, they are at the top of trees, mostly in a state of dormancy. The adults, anyway. I believe the babies are more active since they still have to bulk up on food.

I found a number of spots that were allegedly good for frillies. Mostly, they are parks and schools. The frillies like manicured lawns – it makes it easier to spot insects to munch on. Many of the parks/schools also have regular sprinkler systems, acting as a sort of false wet season.

So, with a list of places to find frillies, I would often go hunting for them on days where I didn’t have any hikes planned. Those days would be my hike, honestly, as I was moving from neighborhood to neighborhood, searching every tree for the silhouette of a lizard. So many times, I’d get a false sense of hope – spotting a tar tar lizard. I would spot plenty of those guys. I walked around Nightcliff, Brinkin, Moil, East Point, Alawa, and on and on and on.

It is funny how lizards often recognize you before you spot them. They seem to “freeze” when a person passes by, but if they see that you’ve spotted them, they usually speed off and try to hide.

One morning, I began my journey and was going from Point A to B, and out of the corner of my eye, I spot a lizard. “Is that a tar tar?” I asked myself. No. The pattern perfectly matched that of a baby frilly. The snout was just the right shape, shorter than that of a tar tar lizard.

I found it.

It didn’t raise its frill, but instead climbed a little higher into the tree. I watched it for a while, snapping pictures of it. Eventually, I decided to leave it in peace. I don’t think I was able to fully register that I had seen it. I saw the frilly!

On other days, I continued to search. I wanted to see one put its frill up and I really wanted to see an adult.

I didn’t end up seeing an adult, but I did end up spotting a baby frilly two more times. Each time, I was as stunned as the first time. It felt like hitting the jackpot.

The second time seeing one was by far the best encounter. It was so low on the tree! As I watched it, it tried to hide behind the tree trunk. I kept circling around, and it kept circling away from me. Then, it climbed up higher. At one point it hopped from one tree branch to another, speeding towards a higher branch on its hind legs. Amazing!

The third time was special for me because even though it didn’t stick up its frill, it was a pretty windy day and the frill started to flap in the wind a little bit. Close enough, I thought.

At a certain point, it lifted its leg – in some weird kind of yoga basking stance.

After watching that guy for about an hour, I went back to the spot of my second sighting from a previous day. It was only a few minutes walk away.

When I got there, I by chance met Aaron, the guy whose frilly post was the catalyst for my frilly hunt – knowing that it was possible to find them in the dry season, since he saw one only a few days ago. How random to be meeting him here! Although, it was the spot that he had found them… and I was looking for them. “I’m looking for frillies,” I told him. “There’s one right here,” he said. His son’s friend was wearing a cowboy hat, and on top of the hat was… a baby frilly. “This one’s pretty chill.” I was laughing – how absurd was this! He asked me if I wanted to hold it… and I did! And then it proceeded to run up my arm and then up my back hahahaha. Aaron kindly removed the frilly from my shirt.

As Aaron and I were talking about wildlife, Darwin, and my time in Australia, he spots something and starts running across the park. And then he grabs a second baby frilly! And then not two minutes later, his son’s friend grabs a third baby frilly!

I could not believe what was happening. It was absurd, and such a lovely treat for my final day in Darwin. We ended up eventually releasing the frillies back into the trees, but not before getting a picture of three of them in a cowboy hat.

Aaron and I talked for a while, but then I had to get back to my hostel to pack up since I had a flight the next morning.

I was positively giddy after the bountiful frilly day I had had. How lucky, that I was able to not see one, but five baby frillies while in Darwin (subtracting one from six sightings since one of them was a repeat).

I love those little guys! I will have to return to Darwin in the wet season at some point in my life so I can try and see the adults, and maybe see their frills go up!

—

A few more thoughts about frillies before I wrap this up. I speculate that the adult frillies are much less likely to come down from high up in the trees during the dry season. Some people had seen them, but I hadn’t spotted any. I like to think I’m a pretty decent spotter, since I had seen so many lizards… just no adult frillies.

I also wanted to mention that the baby frillies aren’t quite as frightened as the tar tar lizards. Those guys zoom off SO fast once they see that you’ve spotted them. I think with the frillies, they know that they also have the “frill” defense, so they don’t have to zoom off as quickly. If they had, I likely wouldn’t have been able to observe one for as long as I’d been able to.

P.S. I took 158 pictures of the baby frillies… so sorry for the spam!

Miscellaneous

Some other stuff from this week…

Before Fogg Dam, John and I went to Holmes Jungle which was a pretty easy hike. Very flat and not at all challenging, which is just how I like it sometimes.

We also went to Charles Darwin National Park on another day, but halfway through the hike I just became exhausted. I have been so on-the-go since being in Darwin and I was pushing myself too hard. After we finished the hike, I went home to take a nap and rest the remainder of the day. This was the day before my big frilly day. I still am feeling a little beaten down, so I’m going to rest today and tomorrow, too.

One day, I went and walked around East Point in search of a frilly (this was only after my first frilly sighting). No frillies, but I did spot two large monitor lizards!

There were lots of walks around Darwin that I went on. Some were mangrove walks, some were more bushy. Lots of birdlife, lots of lizards all around.

Someone in my hostel told me that one day they were walking around and they stepped on a snake accidentally. It didn’t bite him, but slithered off. I couldn’t believe that haha.

There is this thing here in Darwin that the locals call “build up”. The air gets thick and feels like it’s “building up” to a release of rain… but in the dry season, it just doesn’t really come. And then one day – monsoons.

I don’t think I’ve mentioned this, probably because I didn’t know it until recently, but… Darwin was actually bombed during WWII. They have old oil tunnels where they had hid their oil and supplies so the enemy wouldn’t see it and bomb it. At Charles Darwin National Park, they had a bunch of hidden bunkers, too (one picture is included a few pics up).

Art of the Week

This week’s art share is actually of some tattoos that my Perth friends Candice and Kory got. I designed these drawings for them, and they recently went to Bali and got them tattooed! How cool is that?

Reflections

My final night in Darwin, John kindly took me out for dinner and we watched Ningaloo Nyinggulu which is this awesome documentary about the Ningaloo Reef. They had some shots from Coral Bay there and they had even interviewed the skipper of one of the tours I went on while out there!

John also kindly drove me to the airport in the morning. We have plans to meet again in Sydney in August, where we’ll do a mini trip to Canberra.

I had such a blast in the Northern Territory. From Alice Springs to Yulara to Darwin… what an absolutely magical place. While I enjoyed my time there and could have envisioned myself in Darwin for longer, I surprised myself by not feeling sad about leaving, especially having loved it there so much. I suppose I am just ready for the next adventure.

I arrived in Cairns a little bit ago. I am going to take it easy today and tomorrow, but then will start trying to sort out some adventures I want to do while here. Snorkeling along the Great Barrier Reef is obviously a must.

I will be in Queensland for majority of my remaining months in Australia, but I haven’t figured out an “itinerary” yet, per se. I know there are a lot of things I want to do, though!

Anyway… That’s all for now. Sending my love! xx