The Death Adder ~ or when simple evening strolls take a turn.

It all started innocently enough with a quick early evening stroll... I decided there was much work to be done tonight so I thought it best to turn back early, and we started to head home. On the way, a rather striking and unusual sight some feet ahead caught our attention ~

The serpent and the crow:



Of course being at least part-fearless adventuress, with camera in hand, I decided to get out of the car. I remained very aware of my surroundings, and took care not to get within striking zone, using the zoom feature on my camera to capture these images.

Imagine the feelings that rushed through me, when looking through my camera display, in seeing this serpent very deliberately turn its head, and peer directly into me with a piercing gaze. Fangs on display, and a swinging motion ~ I knew this snake was feeling aggressive. With its recent encounter with the curious crow, it was probably feeling somewhat vulnerable too:



Thanks to the photos, I discovered it is a venomous Copperhead, aka Agkistrodon contortrix, also known by the ever charming name of death adder.



We stood guard as other cars came along and made sure to direct them so as to slow down and not to run over the snake before he could be carefully moved with a long fallen tree branch back to the side of the road and out of immediate harms way. After that, we decided it was time to go and allow Nature to continue its cycle, complete with crows still watching intently from the surrounding tree trops.

Had he originally been a few feet over in the leaves and pine needles (the terrain in which we'd been walking just moments earlier), in perfect camouflage he'd have been nearly impossible to spot... I think I'm going to just count my blessings and have a nice cup of tea right about now.

~ Kambriel

[Kambriel.com ~ Etsy ~ Bluesky]