Lesueur National Park

Visited: summer

Recommendation: Although the national park is geared towards wildflowers, it is still a haven for a wide range of animals and well worth a visit. 

Lesueur National Park is just north of Jurien Bay. Its low-lying coastal heath and scrub is very different to other places I've seen on the way down the coast towards Perth. I came in from the north end along a gravel track for about 15 kilometre. I was hoping to see some Blue-tongued Skink in particular and, of course, anything else. I was rewarded quite early on on the track with a beautiful Shingleback Skink that was possibly only just coming out in the sunshine. It was quite sleepy and slow. I ended up getting another two on the way to the entrance to the National Park but they got increasingly grumpy as I found them. That did mean that I got some quite nice shots of them displaying that incredible blue tongue. Apparently, the bright blue tongue is primarily a defense mechanism to scare away predators. 

Western Blue-tongued Skink (Tiliqua occipitalis) 

I came back after dark at about 9pm to try to find the Honey Possum, which is seriously cute. It's locally common, where the environment is right and stable but as it's the size of a mouse, I knew that it would be a very difficult marsupial to find. I started by looking at some of the orange flowering trees. I did see the occasional movement and possibly some eyeshine, but no other sign of the possum. It is much more likely to be out in cooler months, apparently, where it can actually be seen during the day. So this is another place I'll need to come back to. I didn't see anything else. No geckos, no lizards, no snakes. I was beginning to feel disappointed but, as I completed the drive, I flushed a bird. I couldn't tell what it was, possibly a frogmouth or a nightjar. I couldn't locate it so I carried on. Suddenly it appeared next to me and I could clearly see it was a frogmouth. I found it sitting up not too far into the scrub. They're not reported on eBird here, so I was pleased to see it

I saw a couple of other heath and scrub specialists. I had seen lots of pipit on the way in. They always seem to like open road verges. And last was the Western Heath Dragon.