snow morph24

Here is some video I captured a few days ago of Platypus mating behavior in our dam. It's not very good video but it is the first time I have been lucky enough to see and capture this action.

The 7 news item today on my black snakes.

Red-bellied Black Snake tries to eat a Freshwater Snake

It was hard not to intervene here as one of my friends was trying to eat the other. A Red-bellied Black Snake attempting to eat a Freshwater Snake. So I just captured the moment. Maybe because the Freshy was a bit too big or maybe the Black was a bit uncomfortable with me being so close, or maybe because he could quite wrap his mouth around the lower jaw of the Freshwater snake, but in the end he let go. The Freshy had a few puncture marks but seemed to still have plenty of energy after the ordeal.

Georges makes beautiful bamboo installations all over the world. Recently he used our bamboo from Earthcare to make a bridge at the Woodford Folk Festival and also this bamboo bower at the Swell Sculpture Festival along Currumbin Beach, Qld. Here he demonstrates how to make his join between two bamboo poles.

Black snakes fighting again and only about 30 meters from where they were fighting 2 years ago on exactly the same day in September.

I first spotted this platypus in our dam a few weeks ago. We usually have between 1 and 4 Platypuses in the dam at any one time and see them during the day quite often. I enjoy photographing them so I am very familiar with how they usually move around. There is something about this one that has me intrigued and I wonder if there might be something wrong with it. It is very restless and jittery in its movement. I have uploaded this to get the opinions of experts who may know what’s going on with this individual. It has been like this for a number of weeks.

Today I struck it lucky and found 2 Black Snakes in the act of mating. I found them at it at 10.30 am and was able to check on them often throughout the day. The action started out quite vigorous interspersed with periods of rest. After an hour or so they retreated to just outside of the concrete slab that they have been camping under during Winter. There they stayed connected all day! Even after sundown, one of them seemed to be stuck just on the outside. It is impossible to see whether they were still 'attached' but I presume so.

I have been monitoring 10 Black Snakes this Winter. They sun themselves in more or less in the same places every day. About a week ago I noticed they were starting to move around. Today was the first evidence that the mating season has started. I also spotted a very large one cruising down by the dam. It was larger than any I have been watching so presumably a male. Lots more action to come in the next few weeks I hope!

Ever since I uploaded the videos of Black Snakes fighting, people have been suggesting that they were mating not fighting. It is so nice to finally have good footage of mating and you will see the action is very different and much longer lasting.

Red-Bellied Black Snakes fighting, 2.54 mins of spectacular action. I enjoy spotting & photographing black snakes during winter when they sun themselves in same spots around the property, particularly around the dam, spots that catch morning sun and are close to a rock or platypus hole where they retreat to. In preparation I have strategic areas cleared or mowed so they get sun and I can sneak up on them. I have been doing this for a few years and I see black snakes almost everyday that that conditions are favourable ie. some sun and no or little wind. I have noticed that they start to shift around increasingly as Spring approaches and it culminates in the mating & fighting activity on the 21st . Last year on the 22nd I was on the prowl to try and get more video and I saw 9 black snakes around the dam which is a record number for me although they were moving around so much that I may have seen 1 or 2 individuals more than once. They were all very much on the move in search of some action. They are easier to approach when they are in this mode and I get lots of photos and videos. Then after a day or 2 the sightings suddenly falls off and I spot very few snakes for the rest of the year, on average a sighting once every week or 2.

The moral of this story is that Winter and early Spring is the sweet spot for spotting and photographing Black snakes and the 21st & 22nd of September are now chiselled into my brain forever.
You can see some stills of this on my Flickr site here http://tinyurl.com/y8xuogw

Chargrilled pork on a TLUD (Top Lit Updraught Gasifier)
Including lighting up of the TLUD and assembly of the 'flame tamer' & grill top

My first attempt at time lapse, just a bit of fun.

Sedge frogs (Litoria fallax) going for it. Maleny, Queensland

September is the month that Black Snakes do their mating around here and males contest for the privileged. The males cover a lot of ground during this time so they a sighted much more often than at other times.

I took this video in 4K and got some nice stills from it that you can see at the end of my reptiles album here https://flic.kr/s/aHsj5J1Ywd. The video is nothing special but some friends asked to see it so here it is. It is fun the the snake is moving toward me the whole time and it is so intent on its search it doesn't become aware of my presence until it is quite close. They are beautiful animals and I will never get tired of photographing them.

Testing the high speed video setting of the Lumix FZ1000 bridge camera. I keep the camera mounted on a tripod and aimed out at the bird bath which makes a great set to use while I familiarise myself with all the settings under various light conditions.

5 hours of fun compressed into a couple of minutes.

A test to see how well recycled roofing iron held together with tek screws performs as a larger container to make biochar. The result was good even though there was more smoke than usual because much of the bamboo was wet.

Black snakes fighting - my first short video and then the battery runs out. This was shot on the 21st of Sept 2007.  That afternoon, by coincidence, the dam surrounds were slashed so the next day, when I went with fully charged batteries I captured the fantastic fighting action again. I am so happy to capture this action 3 times now.

I enjoy spotting & photographing black snakes during winter when they sun themselves in same spots around the property, particular around the dam, spots that catch morning sun and are close to a rock or platypus hole where they retreat to. In preparation I have strategic areas cleared or mowed so they get sun and I can sneak up on them. I have been doing this for a few years and I see black snakes almost everyday that that conditions are favourable ie. some sun and no or little wind. I have noticed that they start to shift around increasingly as Spring approaches and it culminates in the mating & fighting activity on the 21st . Last year on the 22nd I was on the prowl to try and get more video and I saw 9 black snakes around the dam which is a record number for me although they were moving around so much that I may have seen 1 or 2 individuals more than once. They were all very much on the move in search of some action. They are easier to approach when they are in this mode and I get lots of photos and videos. Then after a day or 2 the sightings suddenly falls off and I spot very few snakes for the rest of the year, on average a sighting once every week or 2.

The moral of this story is that Winter and early Spring is the sweet spot for spotting and photographing Black snakes and the 21st & 22nd of September are now chiselled into my brain forever.