Friday, April 24, 2015

ON OUR WILDLIFE SELECTION NATURE NOTES #2

War  on  the  cheese  front , snakes on  move
Dracula , facing  competition from Currawongs who  try and  steal  his  Dutch cheese,  stops the  traffic  by hopping onto a  car bonnet  to  check  windscreen and wipers  for   tasty  insects, watched by  Magnetic Island residents and  a cluster of Curlews, the latter regarding the pheasant looking Coucal  as an interloper .   At  times  he  and  the  Currawongs are  seen   glaring  at each other , either  side of  the plastic  container in  which  the  bite-sized  cheese  pieces are  kept  by the kind  German  Queen of  the Jungle. A  regular visitor to her  leafy abode , a Kookaburra, below, has  also joined  the  cheese  dogfight . 
Seen slithering away at speed from  the Queen's pad was  the Yellow-Bellied Tree Snake, below, which was pursued by  a lumbering blogger  trying  to keep it in camera focus  before  it disappeared down a stormwater  drain. A  nearby resident  reported   finding  a  python  curled  under  a  wheelie  bin .  My son spotted  a "black looking " snake.