snow morph24

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

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

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.

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.