Monty the Python's slough

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Only in Australia!  My granddaughter, 5, examining the slough of a python!

My daughter's neighbor from the house next door came over to show my grandkids the shed skin of his pet, Monty the Python.
You can see the place of the snake's eye at the bottom.  Enlarge the photo for an even better look.

The neighbor said his snake sloughs off the outer layer of skin about once a month.
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(Linking to Camera Critters.)
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Spring has sprung

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Israel's scorpions and snakes have woken up again, right on time for the official beginning of spring.
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I came home yesterday to find this young snake on my patio, next to my door step.
Yikes!
Where are the cats when you need them?!

Making do with what I had, I dropped a cement block and a balata on the snake.
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I am sorry if this saddens some of the Camera-Critter friends. But I live in a rural setting, in a little house almost right on the ground. And there is just not enough room for me and a venomous snake.
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Happy spring.
P.S. Check out my post about the hunter cat with a live snake in her mouth. It's more fun than this post.

Serpents

Baruch dayan emet.* A man was bitten in the face by a snake yesterday in the yard of his Moshav Shavei Tsion home, in Israel's north. He died shortly after an ambulance brought him to the hospital in Nahariya. Jerusalem Post carries the story here. The radio news today added that after waking up from their winter sleep, snakes are especially active and that the venomous ones now have a full load of venom.
Several months ago I was exploring what a bulldozer had done on the edge of the woods several terraces down the mountainside. I was so busy moving into the right spot for some photos and fiddling with the camera that I walked right next to this snake shown above. Only when turning back did I see the viper. I was in a spot where there was no going up or down or around, so I just stood still and prayed hard. After several very long minutes of neither of us moving, I concluded--hoped-- that he was dead and walked on by. Since I'm here typing now, you know he was.

*Baruch dayan emet is the Hebrew blessing we must say first thing when hearing bad news. It means blessed is the righteous Judge.

To see other bloggers' (hopefully happier) animal photos today, visit Camera Critters.

Sunday update: The radio news today announced that the offending snake was a nachash tsefa, like the one in the photo. I think in English it is called "Palestinian viper."

S for sadly dead animals

Squished frog. Camouflauge was too good.

  Serious serpent.

  Snake eggs.

  Skull of ...?

  So sorry, poor jackal. Probably struck by a car.

Camera-Critter Sunday

Summer is coming and so are the snakes. Mama cat and her daughter showed guarded interest in this venomous baby. Back on the ground again the snake got up into strike position, tongue flicking, threatening the young cat. To my disbelief, the snake leaped away, "flying" through the air. It managed to escape down the hill. Visit other bloggers' animal photos today from http://camera-critters.blogspot.com/.