Tag Archives: snake

Golden Crowned Snake

Cacophis squamulosus

My wife found this snake under a house brick while gardening in the back yard.  My 5 year old daughter identified it as a white crowned snake after reading a snake book that our neighbors had given her a few weeks earlier  She was pretty damn close! After more consultation with the book we were confident this is actually a golden crowned snake. The crown marking on it’s head is quite distinctive, unlike the white crowned snake the golden crowned’s crown has a gap at the back of the head near the neck.

It’s quite small, it would have been about 30cm long and about 1cm thick in the body just behind the head. It hung around for a few minutes after it was disturbed then calmly slithered away to hide under a nearby wood pile. We don’t often see snakes near the house, we were happy to have seen it, and it was great to be able to identify it too.

Golden Crowned Snake
Found in the backyard while gardening. Jessie identified it from a snake book the neighbors gave her! They are venomous but not considered dangerous to people.

Golden crowned snakes are found along much of the east coast of Australia from Queensland to NSW. They are not large growing to a maximum length of 75cm. Although they are venomous they are not considered dangerous to people, they are nocturnal and feed mostly on small lizards, frogs and blind snakes.

more info:

 

Mueller Track at the Wildflower Garden

Jess, Will and I went on another trip to the wildflower gardens. Kelly stayed at home with Tom to rest and recover from a cold. The rest of us had the worst of it yesterday.

We went in via the playground then on to explore the Mueller track for the first time. It was the first hot day of the season, was meant to be 28 and it did feel like it. Only a few meters out of the carpark we came across a large red bellied black snake by the side of the track enjoying the heat. We got a good close look, it didn’t seem too worried by us.

Just into the Mueller track the was a big nest of Jack Jumpers. Man I hate those things. Will was in the backpack and I carried Jess over. Just past the nest we came across another family coming the other way, I told them to look out for the ants. The mum jumped over, then the two daughters got scared and froze just in front of the ants nest and started screaming, then the mum started screaming “dont stand there! move move move!” quite a sight. It must have left an impression on Jess, the rest of the walk she was worried we might come across some more “bitey ants”

We came back up to the Solander trail at the hairpin and walked back to the playground for lunch. It was a good walk, Jess a Will seemed to like it, although they’d had enough by the end.

Red Bellied Black Snake
Red Bellied Black Snake by the side of the track
Will and the Snake
Will didn't pay much attention to the snake
Drink Stop
A short drink stop on the Mueller track