I made a last minute decision to head out into the bush today - an excuse to step away from the computer and clear my head. It was well worth it.
Visiting my nearest favourite spot, I managed to find a very familiar lace monitor,
Varanus varius, that I call 'Bluey', within minutes. I've been photographing Bluey for almost 12 years now and he looked like an old monitor when I first saw him. Now he's looking
really old. He hasn't grown at all in the 12 years and I strongly suspect that he was already reasonably old the first time I saw him, given that he was adult sized (it takes them around 8-10 years to get his size in the wild) and not a young looking animal (which is what one would expect from an 8-10 year old animal). Depending on whether my guess is correct or not, he's somewhere between 20-35 years old, if not older. Personally, I'd be surprised if he was less than 30.
These days he's even more scarred up than before and his skin looks terrible.
Unfortunately, this season may be his last, as his right forelimb is badly swollen and he can barely walk.
It will be a bummer to see him go. On the other hand, I'm pretty sure I've written him off before and he's reappeared.
Over the next few weeks is the time of year that heath monitors,
Varanus rosenbergi, start nesting. I thought I'd check out some familiar mounds, just out of curiosity, and was surprised to find some early pre-nesting test digs.
This mound had three holes - two visible in this shot.
All three holes visible in this shot.
...to be continued in part II
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