Interesting walk this morning.
I took Frankie, the Basset, he belongs to Amy, my friend and neighbour across the street from me, for a walk this morning.
Frankie, it seems, love going for walks with me along the roads leading out town, I assume it's because there are way more trees, bushes, guide-posts and other road-side signs that, in his mind, are in desperate need of his attention which involves watering them...LOL
Anyway, we were about 4 kilometres out of town when this car stops on the opposite side of the road from us, the driver winds down his window and calmly tosses a lighted cigarette butt out the wind.
I spoke up and asked to put the butt out please, as the country-side is still pretty tinder dry from the recent drought and we'd rather not see what ground cover, etc, there is go up in smoke.
He responded in an angry type tone, " It's a free f***ing country, I'll get out and punch your face in if you don't piss off arse-hole," then he started to open his door.
As he did I noticed a thin brown coloured shape come slither out from underneath his car.
I looked at him, looked at the ground near his car and, "Yep, it's a FREE country alright but you'd better ask King Brown his opinion as well, he might just disagree with you."
Don't what his usual diet consists of BUT, boy did he clear the roof of his car and head off across scrub-land like all Hell was hot heels, Mr. King Brown must have decided that the road was NOT the place for to be either, so he disappeared back the car, Frankie and decided (well I did anyway) that if Mr. King Brown is on the move in one direction, best if we go in the totally opposite one.
13
Enjoy being online again!
Welcome to the community of good people who base their values on evidence and appreciate civil discourse - the social network you will enjoy.Create your free account
6 comments
Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.Why would he head into the scrub instead of down the road, either direction? This is not a natural response!
And yes, I'd know. I had an annual nesting of tiger snakes in my back yard as a teen. I've stepped on one bare footed & bare legged. And, run away from many others.
I currently have yellow-eyed whip snakes romancing & preparing for nesting in my boundary rockwall (can be in the dozens, I'm told), within 4 mtrs of my backdoor. Also have had green & brown tree snakes, on my block & the neighbours'. All these were food for my huge diamond python (until neighbours relocated her); so now apex predator is just the resident eastern brown (most venomous).
LizZyG
Level 5
Oct 4, 2021
1
No good asking me why he did the high jump over his car and took off across country.
But snakes have been well know for not only wrapping themselves around the axles or chassis of vehicle but also scaling up and getting through the odd open door from time to time.
He just abandoned his car on the road? Laughing thinking about it. Some tough guy.
BufftonBeotch
Level 8
Oct 2, 2021
1
Yes, far as I could tell, drivers side door wide open, keys probably in the ignition as well.
I spent 10 minutes trying to put out a smoldering fire in some mulch at a shopping center the other day with my foot (there was no water nearby) and that was after another guy had spent a few minutes stomping on it as I was going into the store! I pushed the mulch that was smoldering onto the road where it couldn't spread. By the time I was done, I had cleared an area of several square feet. I was headed into the store to get someone to bring water out, but another lady had already gone it and made the request. Cigarettes on dry tinder can flame fast.
Barnie2years
Level 8
Oct 2, 2021
4
Usually mulch will smoulder for quite some time until it get enough internal heat going to actually catch fire, out here we have dried out spinifex grass clumps almost everywhere imaginable, dead bushes from the recent drought, dead and dried out scrubby bushes, dry leaf litter on the road sides and ALL just waiting for the merest little spark to come along and turn it ALL into big scrub fires in a matter of a few short minutes.
And cigarettes can burn or smolder at an extremely high temperature for a long time.
I had to look up the King Brown Snake. For those of us who don't live in NW Australia, most of us never heard of it.
snytiger6
Level 9
Oct 2, 2021
3
Yes, quite a few people will die from a bit if they don't get an antidote quickly. There are plenty around too. I live in Canberra and over the years I have seen them on several occasions.
Sorry there mate, but Brown Snake do NOT just inhabit N.W. Australia, they are almost EVERYWHERE across the country and I live in Far Western New South Wales, a bloody long way away from the N.W. of Australia.
We get King Browns, Yellow Bellied Browns, Copperhead Browns, Mulga Browns ( Dugites), Yellow Bellied Black Snakes, Spinifex snakes (or as the Native Australian call them "Walk far away around them snakes" ) because they very vicious little buggers that prefer to bite first and ask question much later, elsewhere there a Death Adders and quite a number other nasty and not so little very deadly snakes traveling happily through the bushlands.
@Triphid In the US we just have four venomous snakes. Copperhead, Rattlesnake, Water Moccasin and Coral Snake.
And all of them are pretty docile and will avoid you if at all possible and they have an escape route.
You practically have to taunt them or surprise both of you by stepping on them or something like that.
@BufftonBeotch Some of our venomous ones are the kind that just want to go on their way and want no trouble IF possible BUT then there the others, the ones with attitude problems that you avoid when and where ever possible.
A couple of ones with really BIG attitudes are the Taipan, the Desert Death Adder, the King Brown, aka Dugite/Mulga snake and the the other one that looks harmless but is very, very nasty and deadly, the Spinifex snake.
@snytiger6 They should since snakes have no knowledge of nor care about borders, State or otherwise.
I've seen many a King Brown slithering its way up a river bank, across a road, in a paddock while I been helping to muster sheep, out shooting feral pigs, etc, etc, even cut one into pieces about 2 years ago when cutting firewood with a chainsaw one winter.
It guess ut though that the fallen log would have been a great place to hibernate for the winter, bad lucky because I decided it would make for a nice warm fire instead.
No country is free of its assholes.
anglophone
Level 9
Oct 2, 2021
9
I'm just glad that Mr. King Brown snake decide to hitch a ride in the chassis frame of his car then and decide to depart where he did.
I wonder how long it was before El Arse-hole found enough courage to return to his car?
Hey, I guess you'd know what kind of moods snake are in around this time of year wouldn't you?
@Triphid Yep. It's dugites around here. I also see the occasional carpet python.
@anglophone Love the pythons no time for the rest though.
It now being early Spring the slitheries/Joe Blakes, call them what you like, are all waking up, hungry, pissed off at everything and anything, the males are both hungry and horny so they aren't ones to around at all.
@anglophone Dugites, aka, Mulga Snakes, aka Scrub-land Brown snakes/ yellow bellies, either way STAY away from them at all costs.
@Triphid I do. I suspect they sometimes kill one or two of my poultry.
We have plenty of A-holes here too, but the only snake we have is the harmless garter snake. It seems nature should establish a better balance somehow .... maybe that's why we have politicians and lawyers?
Enjoy being online again!
Welcome to the community of good people who base their values on evidence and appreciate civil discourse - the social network you will enjoy.Create your free account
Share this post
Categories
Agnostic does not evaluate or guarantee the accuracy of any content. Read full disclaimer.