Sunday, October 11, 2009

Egret catches up with Keelback


Bit of live action from Tyto today. Intermediate Egret (Ardea intermedia) tosses Keelback (Tropidonophis mairii) about and tries to catch it near the head for the big swallow. End came soon after the above picture. Big gulps followed by reflex neck spasms. Goodbye snake!


Earlier, 'that's-my-spot' conflict between Whistling Kites (Haliastur sphenurus). Having made some sort of point, the aggressor headed off to another tree. As did the submissive loser.


Black-shouldered Kite (Elanus axillaris) does a bit of stretching before taking off for a spell of low cruising over the grasslands. This bird allowed an unusually close approach, but harsh high sunlight counted against the camera.


Sticking to raptors, here's a Black Kite (Milvus migrans) circling above the lookout.

Finally, no picture, but an amusing incident. Came upon Common Tree Snake in middle of track today. Braked but before coming to halt, found snake speeding for cover - under my feet and the moving bicycle. Off balance, camera bouncing on shoulder, sunglasses flying, feet looking for ground unoccupied by snake, laughing and apologising as it zoomed into long grass. Another case of snakes 'attacking' people. Not!!!

7 comments:

Mosura said...

G'day Tony

Haven't been here for ages as I've been too busy with life in general but seen your egret shot posted on birdingoz and had to pop in here to check out the blog. That's a fantastic catch for both you and the egret.

Alan

Tyto Tony said...

Hi Mosura: Great to hear from you.

Denis Wilson said...

Hi Tony
Stunning "capture" - as Gouldiae has said.
Liked the other photos and the story of you trying to avoid running over a Green Tree Snake. Obviously it is out of its element.
Keep up the quality work, Tony.
Cheers
Denis

Denis Wilson said...

Whoops - that was "Mosura".
Gosh, your photo was good enough to bring him back to the Bloggersphere.
Cheers
Denis

Tyto Tony said...

Hi Denis: I'll plod on with hopes of improving quality and hope luck stays with me.

Unknown said...

Great stories tony, as always.
loving the egret photo, I like a bit of action, man!

cheers,
steve

Tyto Tony said...

Cheers Steve.

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