Snake skin 

I found this cast skin from an Eastern Brown Snake last week. It was lying in the grass in the old riverside graveyard in Queanbeyan. 

I have never found a complete skin before and it was quite long with a sizeable girth. Snakes need to cast their skin to grow.

Laid out, it measured 135 cm tip to tail.

Although, the neck was concertinaed, so the actual length was probably more like 140 cm. 

The best feature of the skin was the preserved detail. The scale pattern on the back, belly, head and lips were complete. The pattern of the scales is unique to each species and the pattern on the head and lips can help identify them if ever in doubt of whether they are venomous or not. Handy when in close, very close, proximity. Best of all were the spectacles, the scales or brilles, that cover the eyes were still in situ, if a little popped open. Two transparent semi-spheres turned inside out.

I wonder how long that snake is now.

 Poor snake

This Eastern Brown Snake had been run over by a car and its body was lying in an agonised twist. 

The snake had been killed a day or before and ants had began eating it.

The ants had exposed the bone structure of the snake's body. They were nibbling away at the skin and flesh from the belly round to the back and the long looping ribs were being stripped clean. 

It was a good opportunity to see an example of the specialised skeletal structure that has evolved over millennia. However, one I would have preferred not to have seen. Please take care not to run over animals on the road, even snakes, they are fascinating animals.

Secure, secured and a snake

An echidna resting between logs

Today began with a bit of frost and the animals were a bit slow to get going. I took part in a local university woodland bird survey soon after dawn and was finished by about nine. After that I went and checked on a couple of Tawny Frogmouth sites.

I always keep my ears as well as my eyes tuned, to the sounds of the bush, and while walking quietly through the woods I heard the distinctive scuffling of an echidna. It was about fifty metres away and I watched as it walked over to a log and promptly burrowed into the litter. And that was that, off for a nap. If I hadn't heard it I doubt if I would have seen it, so well hidden between the logs and leaf litter.

They really tuck tight into corners or hollows

I wonder if any predators would find it in such a secure hiding place, or if any would bother to try and open those spines for a meal?

Who would want to tackle these spines

Then just a hundred metres on, I heard a commotion at an old fence which runs through the wood. Eastern Grey Kangaroos are common - abundant - in many of the Canberra woodlands, and a joey had managed to twist a leg through the wires of the fence. Its mother was standing right over it as it tried again and again to free itself. But it was firmly secured. So, over I went to try and free it, at the likely cost of a few hefty kicks for my trouble. Then no, I was safe. As I approached from its front, the direction the joey had been travelling in and persisted in trying to get away from the fence, it quickly turned to flee from me. And as it did so it twisted itself free, bouncing through the trees non the worse.   

A mother Eastern Grey Kangaroo stands over her joey - stuck in a fence

It was quite a large joey and I really didn't fancy a kick from those hind legs, with claws on the end.

The joey's hind leg was trapped through wires of the old fence

My walk wasn't over though and I carried on looking for frogmouths. That involves lots of time spent looking up trees, trying to pick out the birds from the branches they resemble so well. Fortunately, I always keep an eye on the ground too, as that can save one's neck. By watching the ground I find droppings or feathers which indicate that any otherwise non-noticed frogmouth is up above. Then oops, after spying up a tree I turned and took a few steps, and just noticed an Eastern Brown Snake exactly where I was about to drop my left foot. The snake must have been slow to warm up after the cold night, for I don't usually first see them so close, but luckily I didn't hurt it. Although it didn't like me about to tread on it, so it shot away down its burrow about a body and a half's length away - not quite two metres.

An Eastern Brown Snake - not the one I found today, that one was too quick off the mark to photograph