Deadly Australians.

So...today there was a visitor at school who came to talk to the children about 'Deadly Australians'...the myriad of 'bitey' and 'stingy' creatures this country is home to. There are 400 hundred animals here that either bite or sting and 20 of the top 23 most venomous snakes in the World live here. The most venomous being the Taipan found further north but the second deadliest is the Eastern Brown Snake and they can be found here around Frogknot.It was an interesting talk which would have been better with less digression from the subject by the presenter who loved the sound of his own voice.I was alarmed to discover that snakes do not have great eyesight, can only see black and white and generally cannot sense your approach until you are only about a metre away. I thought their heightened senses caused them to flee long before you got near but apparently not so.As if that was not enough to get me worrying about the arrival of 'snake season' (Spring and Summer) I come home to find this...

...A Red Bellied Black Snake curled up in the chook pen waiting to catch mice.No one has yet died from being bitten by a Red Bellied Black Snake though it's venom is more potent than the American Rattlesnake. The silver lining is that they prey upon the more deadly Brown Snakes...so it is a neighbour we have to put up with for now.