Dangerous times

Look out! Snake on the beach!

Well, how I survived last weekend unscathed is a mystery to me. On Saturday we were down at Congwong Beach at La Perouse for a spot of snorkelling. Before we even entered the water things got decidedly dicey as we came across a snake on the path. Even though it was only a baby one, it could still have done plenty of damage. Apparently the little youngsters haven't learnt how much poison to inject and so just go with a full load when a more experienced animal saves its precious venom for when its really needed.

Blue-bottles!

After safely negotiating the snake, we were faced with a beach full of Blue-bottles (Portugese Men-O'-War). Allan assured us that if they're on the sand, they're not in the water. Well, obviously! What he meant is that they tend to float about in narrow belts so if a load gets washed up, thats the last of them for a while. This theory proved correct and there were no Blue-bottles in the water but there were other stingers which we managed to avoid.

Stinger!

Allan!

Not much in the way of fish down there and visibility was pretty poor so we headed off into town for the annual beer festival at The Rocks. While there we all managed to survive drinking a nasty pilsener called Pig Dog.

Richmond Turf Farms. Hot hot hot!

On Sunday I went out west for a bit of bird-watching with Jarrod. It was blazing hot and a bit of a struggle really. And on top of all that it was crawling with snakes. Not little baby ones here but big proper snakes. We saw half a dozen at very close range. You only tend to see them when you're about to step on them!

Bushells Lagoon. Snakes snakes snakes!

They were mostly Red-bellied Black Snakes but there was a big Eastern Brown Snake as well. He comes in at number 2 on most of the World's most poisonous snakes lists. The Black Snake comes way down at number 20!

Red-bellied Black Snake

So with one eye on the ground and one looking for the birds I managed to get one new one for the list! A Brush Cuckoo #360. We also picked up a pair of Black-tailed Native Hens and a flock of Glossy Ibis. All three of these seem to be pretty unusual for round here and were enough to get us published on the Bird Sightings website again. A Brown Quail also came to investigate the car and was within arm's reach next to my door at one point! Great stuff.

A Red-kneed Dotterel braves the snakes and the heat.

We then survived all the maniac P-platers heading back through the western suburbs and I was quite relieved to get to my bed on Sunday night in one piece.