A couple of weeks ago up the farm we had one of those unbelievable sunsets; bright red sky, and just the right number of clouds with lovely red and orange tinges.
Farm
Definitely not cuddly!
But it is still part of the weird and wonderful wildlife that you can find in country Victoria!
The Common or Eastern Brown Snake can grow to around two metres, and are fairly slender by snake standards. In favourable conditions they are known to move around at night. I guess that the favourable part is a matter of perspective – I was freaked-out enough at seeing this one in broad daylight! These guys are poisonous and are responsible for the majority of snake bites in Australia – and they move quickly. If you want to see it up-close click on the photo.
Cuddly Koala?
They do look cuddly, until you realise how big their claws are!
The Walker’s dog had this one “trapped” up a tree for a few days, right outside their bedroom window. Obviously it hadn’t been up there long enough as leaves still got in the way of his face. He seemed quite happy up there with lots of fresh food.
Echidna – Upclose & Personal
I have found echidnas to be a touch tricky to take photos of in the past. As soon as they see you coming the head ducks down and they start to dig in. If you are patient usually the nose will peek out – but as soon as you get the beep of the auto-focus snapping-in that’s it, all you get is a small mound of prickles! This one however was quite accommodating – that may have had something to do with all the ants around at the time – they don’t call them spiny ant eaters for nothing!
Australian Echidnas are one of only three species monotreme, egg-laying mammals, in the world – more details about Echidnas can be found on the Tasmanian Department of Primary Industries and Water Website [^].
Farm Panorama
This is a follow-up post to the Mt Wombat Firetower post[^] of almost two weeks ago. Here we have a panorama of the farm, on the Stathbogie Plateau taken a week ago. Mt Wombat is the tree-clad peak about a third of the way along from the left. Click on the Image to see the whole thing – be warned it is long – about all that you can see are dry paddocks.
