Snakes, a timely reminder.

[Oldbloke]

Some good info on treatment and basic snake info.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/202 ... d=90431477

[womble]

Some good swim suits too

[Bugman]

Gaiters anyone?

[deye243]

This one was down at the irrigation head he was fairly laid-back which was very surprising cannot work out whether he is a brown snake or a copper head .

Screenshot_20211107-144825_Messages.jpg (496.35 KiB) Viewed 3841 times

[bigpete]

Snakes really aren't that much to worry about,compared to say,driving

[Oldbloke]

Snakes really aren't that much to worry about,compared to say,driving

Correct. About 2 deaths a year.

[deye243]

Snakes really aren't that much to worry about,compared to say,driving

Correct. About 2 deaths a year.

Well we better lock the state down then .

[bladeracer]

Just walked down to paint some targets, and she wasn't there then as I would have tripped over her. I took the electric chainsaw and broke down some branches while I was out there.

10172021172452.jpg (217.61 KiB) Viewed 3639 times

1017202117259.jpg (374.81 KiB) Viewed 3639 times

Got some video, then some stills, before she decided she'd had enough, and launched herself to my right like lightning
https://youtu.be/skxR8hketTA

We lost a cow today that has been pretty crook for a week.
But we lost a calf on Monday for unknown reasons. We arrived at the block and saw the herd hurrying up the hill. By the time we walked over there we found him already dead, no marks on him. I suspect a snake bite, but there's no way to be sure.
Makes for a very expensive week.

[bladeracer]

Was walking back from the middle block just now, in the rain. 60m of barbed wire on the end of a star picket over one shoulder, chainsaw in the other hand. Pretty buggered nearing the end of a 3000m walk, water running off me, looking forward to getting inside to dry out.

About 20m from the dam, walking along the fence line, I hear a quiet yelp, and catch sight of a fat fox leaping out of the grass. She must've been watching me trudge towards her until, about three-meters distant, she took fright. She took off away from me on the other side of the fence, toward the dam. Two ducks sitting on the water, the fox reaches the dam, chucks a right turn, and follows the fence across this end of the dam, and disappears over the dam wall heading toward the road. The ducks don't seem to have noticed anything, only my head would be visible to them over the dam wall.

I'm thinking that's a lucky fox and carry on. As I come up the wall the ducks see me and take off. I carry on around the dam, watching to the side to see if she's propped somewhere watching me. I catch a dark movement to my left near my feet, immediately thinking another duck hiding in the grass. But it's actually the local red-belly black laying out in the rain, weird

I damned near stepped on her, but she slithers down the bank into the water. I drop both loads and grab my phone to catch her when she surfaces, which she does maybe twenty seconds later, about four-meters out from me.

My damned phone is coated with rainwater and won't recognise my fingers! The side button brings up the camera, but nothing I do on the screen has any effect. I wipe it across my chest to dry it, but my clothes are no drier than if I where standing in the dam up to my neck.

She's got her head up watching me and slowly lets her body float to the surface, until there's about a meter of beautiful black snake laying in the water...and I can't even get a photo, let alone some video

It was one of those moments that deserve to be captured on camera, but I missed out.

Maybe next time!

[bladeracer]

Did my usual 100rds on the silhouettes, then went up to photograph and paint them. Did that, then noticed our little friend getting some (slight) sun, about 5m to the left of my targets. As I finished on the 40m chickens, the loudest shot and loudest ring, she seemed completely "not bovvered" by the noise.

I went to get some pics and she dived straight into the dam, did an underwater u-turn, and popped her head out in the reeds to watch me.

10252021142826.jpg (293.19 KiB) Viewed 3418 times

We sat and watched each other for 35 minutes without moving. She won the staring contest as my t-shirt wasn't coping with the cold wind. I moved off a few meters and she ducked her head, swam out a couple meters, and popped up to see where I was.
https://youtu.be/pLZJvbiX0TM
She did some graceful swimming, then headed for the shore and back up onto the dam wall to warm up - so beautiful!