reptilerob
Active Member
OK, im not going to bore anybody on here with fishing photos and reports, but lets just say i caught a stack of brown and rainbow trout, and that herping and fishing go hand in hand just nicely.
I have spent most of my life fishing, and avoiding snakes along the way, these days its a pleasure to run into them.
My wife and i have just spent a few days in the Victorian high country, based at a family residence in Mt Beauty. From there we travelled quite a long distance up to omeo, over to corryong, back up to mitta mitta and back to mt beauty, as well as various other shorter trips.
We had an absolute ball of a time looking for reptiles along the way.
We encountered so many blotched blue tongue lizards that it was unbelievable. In the end we didnt even stop for them, just slow down, swerve around them and keep going!!
We photographed 6 or 7 of them, these are two of my favourite blotched blue tongue photos,
I like this one because its a nice pose, instead of the straight line thing they seem to do so well!!!
And i like this next one, because it wasnt on the road like most of them seem to be. We were walking along a track and could here rusteling from a nearby bush, so we looked and found this bluey. I love these reptiles, they are so nice natured!!!
On one of the shorter fishing trips we done, we found this tiger snake laying on the track,
About 10 minutes after finding that tiger snake, we were walking through really thick scrub to get to a stream to fish, when a copperhead took off from infront of me and frightened the life out of me. By the time my wife got to me (i was in front) with her camera, it was laying just outside a blackberry bush, then before the camera even had time to focus, it was gooooooone.......beautiful looking copperhead it was too!!!
Later that day, we were treated to a late afternoon thunderstorm, which the high country is nutorius for during hot humid weather,
Next morning we headed off over the top, past falls creek. Along the way near bogong village we walked into mclouds falls for a look,
We then continued over the mountains and down into the upper mitta mitta valley, where we photographed more blotched blue tongues, and these awesome jacky dragons. I fell in love with these things, they are such a wonderful reptile to watch.
I also photographed this cunninghams skink at the same place as the jacky dragons,
In this same area we saw another kind of lizard. Im not sure what it was, it was not quite as big as a blotched blue tonge, brown coloured and as fast as lightning!!! It looked similiar in shape to a blue tongue, just a bit smaller and brown coloured, like a shingleback. It hada pointy tail. We had no hope of photographing them as they were so fast. Even just walking along quietly, they would spook easily. Hopefully when i get back there soon i will get a photo of one.
As the heat became unbearable, the reptiles disappeared apart from one or two blotched blue tongues.
Later in the evening as the temp dropped, up high in a valley at an altitude of around 800 metres, we found this sensational looking copperhead. I absolutely love these snakes, they are such a shy natured snake. While we were photographing this beautiful specimen, there was a darkening sky and constant thunder clapping overhead. The thunderstorm really added to the moment!!!
After watching and photographing this beautiful copperhead, we headed off, and less than 100 metres along the track, we found a dead tigersnake that had no sign of injuries. I'd say it was hit by a car, but we were so certain it was alive because it had no obvious sign of being ran over!! Either way it was sad, live ones are much better!!!!
This dead tiger snake, the copperhead and the tiger snake and copperhead from the day before we all within a 1km radius.
About 10 minutes after photographing the copperhead to the sound of thunder, we stopped on a pretty high vantage point and admired the thunderstorm as it rumbled overhead, and lightning cracked over victorias highest mountain, mt bogong.
Here is a short video clip of the storm with the loud thunder clearly audible.
It was only a reasonably small storm, but still awesome!!!
[video=youtube;7mWuQD9PXc4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mWuQD9PXc4[/video]
Then on the last day (yesterday) i went for a drive alone yesterday morning. I didnt see a single thing. Then as the temp started nudging 30, and i had all but given up on seeing any reptiles yesterday, i saw this enormous eastern brown snake just sitting in somebodys driveway watching all of the cars go past on a pretty busy road near bright!! I couldnt believe my eyes, it was huge. My wifes bredli is about 6 foot long, and i estimate this eastern brown to be pretty similiar, perhaps even 6 inches longer!!!
I have never been able to photograph one of these things like this. They have always been so fast, and so quick to get off the road. This truly was a wonderful experience!!! Each time a car went passed it looked more and more uptight!!
As the snake started slithering away, i put my camera into video mode to get a bit of footage of it, but before i even had a chance to focus the camera, the snake was gone. I cant believe how quickly these things can move across the ground. They make the tigers and copperheads look like snails!!
Late yesterday afternoon we saw another very large snake, this time a red belly black snake. The moment i hit the brakes it was off. We went into the bush looking for it, but didnt find it. The old black snake seems to be quite elusive sometimes!!!
I hope anybody reading my report enjoyed it as much as i enjoyed my time away with my wife herping the Victorian high country.
My wife is staying on in mt beauty until next tuesday, hopefully i will have some more photos from her better quality DSLR when she returns.
I have spent most of my life fishing, and avoiding snakes along the way, these days its a pleasure to run into them.
My wife and i have just spent a few days in the Victorian high country, based at a family residence in Mt Beauty. From there we travelled quite a long distance up to omeo, over to corryong, back up to mitta mitta and back to mt beauty, as well as various other shorter trips.
We had an absolute ball of a time looking for reptiles along the way.
We encountered so many blotched blue tongue lizards that it was unbelievable. In the end we didnt even stop for them, just slow down, swerve around them and keep going!!
We photographed 6 or 7 of them, these are two of my favourite blotched blue tongue photos,
I like this one because its a nice pose, instead of the straight line thing they seem to do so well!!!
And i like this next one, because it wasnt on the road like most of them seem to be. We were walking along a track and could here rusteling from a nearby bush, so we looked and found this bluey. I love these reptiles, they are so nice natured!!!
On one of the shorter fishing trips we done, we found this tiger snake laying on the track,
About 10 minutes after finding that tiger snake, we were walking through really thick scrub to get to a stream to fish, when a copperhead took off from infront of me and frightened the life out of me. By the time my wife got to me (i was in front) with her camera, it was laying just outside a blackberry bush, then before the camera even had time to focus, it was gooooooone.......beautiful looking copperhead it was too!!!
Later that day, we were treated to a late afternoon thunderstorm, which the high country is nutorius for during hot humid weather,
Next morning we headed off over the top, past falls creek. Along the way near bogong village we walked into mclouds falls for a look,
We then continued over the mountains and down into the upper mitta mitta valley, where we photographed more blotched blue tongues, and these awesome jacky dragons. I fell in love with these things, they are such a wonderful reptile to watch.
I also photographed this cunninghams skink at the same place as the jacky dragons,
In this same area we saw another kind of lizard. Im not sure what it was, it was not quite as big as a blotched blue tonge, brown coloured and as fast as lightning!!! It looked similiar in shape to a blue tongue, just a bit smaller and brown coloured, like a shingleback. It hada pointy tail. We had no hope of photographing them as they were so fast. Even just walking along quietly, they would spook easily. Hopefully when i get back there soon i will get a photo of one.
As the heat became unbearable, the reptiles disappeared apart from one or two blotched blue tongues.
Later in the evening as the temp dropped, up high in a valley at an altitude of around 800 metres, we found this sensational looking copperhead. I absolutely love these snakes, they are such a shy natured snake. While we were photographing this beautiful specimen, there was a darkening sky and constant thunder clapping overhead. The thunderstorm really added to the moment!!!
After watching and photographing this beautiful copperhead, we headed off, and less than 100 metres along the track, we found a dead tigersnake that had no sign of injuries. I'd say it was hit by a car, but we were so certain it was alive because it had no obvious sign of being ran over!! Either way it was sad, live ones are much better!!!!
This dead tiger snake, the copperhead and the tiger snake and copperhead from the day before we all within a 1km radius.
About 10 minutes after photographing the copperhead to the sound of thunder, we stopped on a pretty high vantage point and admired the thunderstorm as it rumbled overhead, and lightning cracked over victorias highest mountain, mt bogong.
Here is a short video clip of the storm with the loud thunder clearly audible.
It was only a reasonably small storm, but still awesome!!!
[video=youtube;7mWuQD9PXc4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mWuQD9PXc4[/video]
Then on the last day (yesterday) i went for a drive alone yesterday morning. I didnt see a single thing. Then as the temp started nudging 30, and i had all but given up on seeing any reptiles yesterday, i saw this enormous eastern brown snake just sitting in somebodys driveway watching all of the cars go past on a pretty busy road near bright!! I couldnt believe my eyes, it was huge. My wifes bredli is about 6 foot long, and i estimate this eastern brown to be pretty similiar, perhaps even 6 inches longer!!!
I have never been able to photograph one of these things like this. They have always been so fast, and so quick to get off the road. This truly was a wonderful experience!!! Each time a car went passed it looked more and more uptight!!
As the snake started slithering away, i put my camera into video mode to get a bit of footage of it, but before i even had a chance to focus the camera, the snake was gone. I cant believe how quickly these things can move across the ground. They make the tigers and copperheads look like snails!!
Late yesterday afternoon we saw another very large snake, this time a red belly black snake. The moment i hit the brakes it was off. We went into the bush looking for it, but didnt find it. The old black snake seems to be quite elusive sometimes!!!
I hope anybody reading my report enjoyed it as much as i enjoyed my time away with my wife herping the Victorian high country.
My wife is staying on in mt beauty until next tuesday, hopefully i will have some more photos from her better quality DSLR when she returns.
