Went out this afternoon to get some firewood,and have a look for some dingos.Always take the 400L and 50D.Hoping to take some interesting wildlife images-I walked around the paddock-saw very little.Got back to the ute-packed the 400L in it baby capsule-and turned to start the ignition-and this is what I saw-see image 3-right on the tyre tracks I walked a couple of minutes previous-now Chris was rather pale-at the thought of how close he was!
This Brown Snake was quite a large specimen-at close to six foot long!I tried to take image with 400L but too close-so started the ute and backed away-its head poked up,stoped the ute and managed a quick head shot-see image one(no crop),and two-slightly cropped.Never been so glad to be sitting in a vehicle!
Chris its probably one of the large mummy or daddy Browns who have been very busy increasing their SEQ population of late!
Not the most friendly of wildlife either - see this weeks CM - Warwick woman killed in her garden.
I grew up on a river bank where we had a "zero tolerance policy" to Browns,
Red Belly Blacks and Tigers! I guess these days that would be regarded as not politically correct, but in those days humans were the threatened species!
Just after the 1950 flood my mother opened an old chest of drawers to find a large RBB and young family in residence.
Yep-mine was nearly that colour too,Ben-image three is a fairly good representation of what I first saw-but I had to back the ute up to get this image-It was that darn close-comments a critique welcomed image one and two-the camera says 6.5 metres away! Will not get it printed or carded up-I'd scare the cr-p out of customers!
He's a beauty all right.
I'll leave them to their own business in paddocks. But if I find them in my house yard.....
Red belly's are cool though. Their diet includes baby brown snakes.
I grew up on a river bank where we had a "zero tolerance policy" to Browns,
Red Belly Blacks and Tigers! I guess these days that would be regarded as not politically correct, but in those days humans were the threatened species!
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Growing up on a farm my parents would kill any snakes (mostly tigers and blacks) around the house or chook pen - just common sense imo. They're not a problem when they're away from the house so long as you watch where you're walking.
Great shots - and nice that you stayed calm. Shot 2 is now part of my screen saver set.
Years ago I saw just how easy it is to walk near snakes and not see them. I was at a conference near Adelaide and, as is normal in earth sciences, there was a field trip to local 'attractions'. So two coach loads of us (60-80 in all) set out across a stubble field to look at some spectacular human-induced gully erosion, walking in file. Suddenly in front of me some people started taking a wide diversion. It turned out there was a 4m king brown right next to the path we had been following. About 20-30 people walked within 2-3m of that snake and didn't see it.
When I was in Thailand a few years ago I came face to face with a Cobra I came within a foot of this snake and I have never seen a snake so long, face to face that is. It was a whole lot of scary, I can tell you! I hate, and at the same time love, snakes. They are just so graceful.
I am already a survivor of a snake bite. When I was 14 I was bitten by a Dugite snake (which is a deadly WA/SA snake). I survived but the snake didn't. It was killed and taken to the hospital for identification. It wasn't a pleasant experience. I have survived so many near death experience it truly amazes me that I am still alive. Oh well, only the good die young
We had a Brown snake that big in our warehouse at work just a couple of weeks ago. Scary thing was I was only a couple of metres away from it at one stage, not long before it was discovered moving under a pallet by one of the warehouse staff. Ended up having to call in a snake catcher who made catching it look like childs play!
We later checked the security camera footage and saw it just wonder in through the receiving gate undetected earlier that afternoon. Cheeky bugger.
Well,it was certainly a surprise to see the amount of feed back on these images! Thanks all who left thoughts on the images,after seeing the amount of interest here,I put these up-and to my surprise they have been snapped up by various publications!Here is the local newspaper doing a little story on snakes in the area,as a few people have been bitten in S.E QLD recently,and unfortunately,as David mentioned-a person died last week.
Yes,Jen-was a very big snake,and Mel-I love the emtcon-that's about what my face looked like for a good few seconds before I got the cameras out.
The head shot specs F 6.3,speed 1000 and iso 800 AV mode.Only got a few shots,before he started attacking front right hand tyre.
