Tag: whip snake

Last weekend Lucas and I had a spare day and he was pretty keen to head to the Western Treatment Plant as we hadn’t been there for ages. As we arrived it started pouring with rain and that was a theme for the visit – moments of brilliant sunshine followed by pouring rain. We first headed out to Kirk Point where a late pale Arctic Jaeger provided some interest. I think the main reason Lucas likes the WTP is he gets to sit in the front as we drive around and today was no exception. Nothing particularly exciting on the bird front but we set ourselves a modest target of 60 species for the visit.

Eventually with not much activity we started to head out but stopped in an area with plenty of rocks and rubbish scattered around. Lucas is always up for a good flip so we went for a wander to see what we could find. Plenty of centipedes, crickets and roaches as well as the odd unidentified nest which i assumed were house mice although they did not smell. Eventually I flipped a cracked and broken bit of masonry and found a snake! Looking at the dark crown and tiny size I immediately assumed it was a juvenile Eastern Brown Snake. Unfortunately it slipped down a crack in the ground before I could snag a photo so we moved on. We soon found another somewhat larger specimen which allowed a couple of photos before it to found a crack to disappear. I wasn’t entirely sure of ID so sent a few text pics to some wiser heads who confirmed the snakes were in fact Little Whip Snakes – Parasuta flagellum – which was a new snake for Lucas and I. We were pretty stoked so celebrated with some junk food on the way home after also meeting out 60 bird species target.