Time to go hunting for scorpions! And snakes obviously! Anything classed as a reptile or creepy-crawly is our prize this afternoon.
No rock left unturned, no logs unmoved, no tree left still rooted… okay, maybe I am exaggerating on the tree bit – we are environmentalists after all!
Our afternoon started off promising, at a nearby property we could see building rubble and farm debris that looked very “snakeable”.
After breakfast it was time for a quick photo shoot with Antons little snake collection. The big problem though is deciding which ones to choose!
As it was just a quick shoot we decided on a Puff Adder from the Eastern Cape, an East African Gaboon Adder and the Black File snake.
Fredrik plays with the Black file snake on his extreme nature tour
Limelight time for one of our little Gaboon Adders.
Puff Adder close ups
Then it was off to find a crocodile with a fish hook stuck in his mouth!
UPDATE: The Crocodile is missing in action! Someone tried to catch him two days ago and lost, and it would appear that he isn’t keen on this happening again and has moved. We have our spies in the area keeping their eyes open for the Crocodile so as soon as he is spotted we’ll be straight after him.
Sadly no snakes on the road tonight, but we still had an awesome time jam-packed with sightings.
Birds:
Eagle Owl
Night Jar x 6 (sadly 1 was dead on the road)
Bronze Winged Coursers x 3
Unidentified Plover x 2
Water Thick Knee
Lapwing
The Water Thick-Knee was waiting for us as we drove in the gate.
Reptiles:
Flap-necked Chameleon
Velvet Gecko
The Flap Necked Chameleon was just getting ready to snooze
This little Velvet Gecko darted across the road in front of us.
Mammals:
Grey Duiker
Waterbuck
Zebra (albeit on the other side of the fence)
Red Duiker
Cane Rat – DOR
Nyala
Mongoose
This was the first time any of us cruisers had seen a rat this big!
Duikers and bucks were darting across the road all night
What a fantastic start to our birding and reptile tour, no sooner had our guests arrived and put their bags in their rooms than we get a snake call out! Next door to us was a problem snake that needed to be removed, namely a Forest Cobra – fantastic we thought, another one for our telemetry project. But alas it is too small so we have to keep looking. On the veranda, squeezed under a chair in the smallest space you could possibly think of was the Forest Cobra.
The Forest Cobra had managed to squeeze into a space I could barely fit my fingers into!
He obviously wanted to avoid us pesky humans but did not want to stray too far from the nice juicy toad sitting on the table next to the chair.
He was determined to get back to his toad!
Armed with snake sticks and our trusty bin Anton soon had the Forest Cobra in his clutches and safely in the bin.
Anton installs the Forest Cobra safely into the snake bin for transportation.
