Blue Mountains Photographer ~ Snake Hunting

It's the perfect day for snakes... so I went hunting.
Usually, it's not recommended for you to move stealthily through the bush because the snakes don't know you're coming.  In my case, the reason was to not let the snake know that I was coming... so I crept.

If you do wish to snake hunt, wear really tough boots... I wear walking boots which also have a steel toe cap... I don't know why but they do.  Hey, you never know when they'll come in handy!
Anyway, your boots should come a decent way up your leg given that most snake bites are on the foot or ankle... if you want to be extra safe, a pair of shin pads is handy and cheap.

Snakes rarely bite with venom the first time... In fact, they're quite happy to give you a warning 'punch' first, which can sometimes break the skin.  It's happened to me once and I didn't even know I'd been punched until I got home and found two marks on my shin, about the space apart that fangs are.  I do remember thinking at the time that something had hit my leg and assumed it was a stick, but sticks generally don't leave fang marks. : )
It did take a long time to heal I remember.  So shin pads... and boots, and probably good trousers no matter how hot it is.

Our snakes are quite notoriously shy, the most common being the Red belly Black where I am.  We also have Brown snakes, but they seem to be more shy or less in number as I have real difficulty locating them.
Today was no exception.
I have several spots on my morning walk where I know they hang out, one is a sewerage cover which is concrete.  A large Brown snake loves this spot in the early morning and evening and I've seen him there several times, curled up in his glossy, fat brown rings to warm up before dinner.  This morning however, he wasn't there.

In fact, whilst gently creeping through the bush, I found nothing except a pretty Bush orchid ...

and a fairly juvenile Blue Tongue lizard, who'd draped himself over a branch to get more sun.

On my equally stealthy walk back along the track, a fat fly was trying to take a bite out of me, so I leant over to grab some grass to swish him away and there was a baby Blue tongue.  He looked a little dead, so I touched him to make sure and bingo, a big mouth and blue tongue flashed at me and he shoved his head under a pile of leaves and grass.

So no snakes this morning... Try again tomorrow.