An interesting linguistic issue. A Summer that is "bad for snakes" could be construed from the human or reptile perspective with very different outcomes.
In my bit of Carwoola we have had a more or less normal number of snakes. We have put in snake repellers to deter them from the places we use, and thus protect our dog. So we have seen less - but not zero - snakes around the house. A side effect has been no snake deaths through getting tangled in the netting to keep parrots off our trees.
Martin
On Sat, Mar 24, 2012 at 7:06 PM, Erika Roper <> wrote:
Has anyone else noticed that this past summer seems to have been bad for snakes? My yard (in Bungendore) and the cemetery over the road are usually full of snakes, and a summer never goes by without several sightings. No so for this year. I assumed that it had something to do with the unusually mild and wet weather. Today though, I was walking through the cemetery to look for some YTBC that I saw and heard flying over the house, when I came across a large, almost perfect snakeskin. I haven't measured it yet (my folks are freaking out about it somewhat) but the unbunched portion (tail end) must be at least 1m long, and I'm guessing that the bunched up section contains at least another 0.5 to 1m.
Not being a snake expert, I can't tell what species it is. Though judging from past snakes in the yard it could be either a Tiger, a Brown, or a King Brown.
Any thoughts? I have the skin in a box if anyone is interested in seeing it.
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