A snake and a magpie

We have our house on the market and had planned a Saturday garage sale.  In the tidy up I lifted a piece of cardboard that was on the cement floor - and underneath curled up as snakes do, like a twirl of rope, was a little snake.

I calmly told MM there was a snake there - and as usual he disbelieved me until I made it move.  Then he asked "What sort of snake is it?"  As if I would know.  I'm not a herpetologist!!!  I looked at it and saw the colour.  "A brown snake" I answered.  Though it had a strange diamond shape on its head.  Diamond python?  Who knows.  I think it met a sad fate - perhaps did not survive being thrown onto the road and mixing it with the traffic.  Like a lot of people I think a good snake is a dead snake, though I am more friendly to green tree snakes.

As it turns out, I had wanted to ride my e-bike (the battery operated machine that has been somewhat neglected as I had resided in very hill territory with narrow busy roads).  Now I am in a semi rural area, I can ride more, so I planned to ride it the few kms to the new abode.  The weather was fine, and luckily stayed that way for the day, and I set off shortly before midday.

Helmet on, battery working and I found my way along roads and paths that I had not ridden before.  As I was travelling along Dianthus Street, Gumdale, a guy in a Telstra van waved me down.  "Did you know that a magpie has dived at you four times?"  I had no idea.  Clearly the maggie had not come within my view - maybe I was a bit fast for it, I don't know.  In any case, it did no harm to me, and I rode on thanking him for the warning.

Two encounters with no so friendly Aussie wildlife in one morning.

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