A few warm days, a fat black snake with a lunchtime bulge basking in the sun, and then five degree mornings again.
I know to keep an eye out now, but I have been watching the wallabies and roos accept the snake’s presence, and even close progress, and show no sign of anxiety.
I must learn to be still.
I saw the snake again today — and managed to keep on hanging out the washing.
Almost daily an echidna potters though the yard, weaving its waddling way between the groups of macropods that laze and graze — usually around 20, not counting joeys in pouches.
I enjoy their easy acceptance of each other, as I do when the wallabies let me pass very close and don’t move. No echidna is at ease with me yet.
Yesterday I saw the first satin bower bird pecking around the bay tree, darting in and out from its low growing shelter. She could have been a ceramic figurine, with her subtle colouring and well-defined bumps of breast feathers.
There will be many more, ready for what fruit the parrots leave. While the trees bear only blossom my feelings are simple: admiration.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Sharyn
Lovely snake shots, and I admire your resolve to not PANIC.
Learning from the Wallabies is a nice touch.
Great to have a tame Echidna waddle through the daffodils.
Denis
Hi Denis,
Baby steps towards not panicking yet, and it’s only taken me 30 years. Bu the echidnas aren’t tame; they just treat the place as their own, which it is.
What an amazing country
Sure is, Peter, and biodiversity is pretty healthy here, unlike many places; we are still at risk of losing so many species!