Friday, April 30, 2010

Here We Go

DO NOT READ OR LOOK ANY FURTHER IF YOU ARE DELICATE OR SQUEAMISH..THIS IS NOT A PRETTY SIGHT....

I was sleeping as usual in front of the computer...I watch iView on the computer as do not get TV reception here, would if I installed a proper antenna but usually only watch Aunty and these days 7 and 9 are available on the computer....well a friend sent an email and I woke up with a start as the computer boings...turned off 39 Steps which I had watched the first five minutes of and promptly feel asleep in a you beaut feet up lounge chair....

After replying to my nocturnal friends email heard a commotion outside...grabbed the torch and one of my stallions was having a wonderful time gallop about and screaming gleefully at everything and everybody else in the horse world...the nonce...can not convince him yet to serve a mare as is all noise and no action but he thought he sounded stallionely.....what to do with him I have no idea....another story..

So I am turning the air blue with choice words and eventually snaffled him in a smaller yard beside the stables and heard a loud thump and screaming from underneath the boganvilla bushes...had a fair idea what was going on that bloody Slytherin and I had thought she had retired for the winter but no...

Put the stallion away and shone the torch under the bush and sure enough there was no not Slytherin as Slytherin is humungous but a smaller clone of Slytherin, the carpet python, gleefully clasping a hare by this time dead and was busily squashing the hare...not a pretty sight but am going to take you through the whole thing just the same as it happens and is nature...

I went back into the house emailed my friend what I was doing, is better to share especially nice stuff, not, and grabbed my camera, torch and a heavy coat and crawled under the boganvilla and took photographs to share with the world....not exactly David Attenborough but is nature and really is  remarkable how the python got that hare down his throat...I thought no way you wanker that is too big...


No way are you going to do this I said and thought....and I like the hares who are always bright eyed and bushy tailed and never seem to get out of control and now I have a fair idea why...but this was my fault as they always run under the boganvilla when I am thrashing about in the night and this was lying there and could not believe his luck....

Took him a fair time to get to this stage and I still thought no way you waster...



The python was squeezing the hare skinny...it beats me how he does not impale himself on a broken bone as they must be breaking to get the body down skinny...
I never thought he would get this far and I would have bet the farm this snake could not get the hare into its gut and at this stage knew that perhaps I would lose if I had bet.
The snake is squashing and squashing up near its mouth and pushing towards its mouth with the rest of its coils

Twisting and squeezing

I would

Unbelievable and quite sinister...snakes are really creepy but this happens...and the hare only survived seconds before it died....I heard the screaming of the hare which only lasted seconds and in the few minutes it took me to run the stallion in and crawl under the bush the animal was dead.

Down go the feet



The python paused here and his whole body was undulating as it forced the animal into its length, and the hare was elongated into twice its length as it passed the immediate area behind the snakes head, must have very powerful mechanism inside as well as out.

Done and it slithered away....and I was not crawling any further under that darn prickly bush to document its departure..

I raced in and out of the house, downloading the images, crawling back under the bush trying to hold the torch, manually focus the camera and thinking where was Slytherin who is twice or even three times the size of this python and thinking Slytherin could probably digest me...no just joking but these things tend to crawl into the recesses of the mind when looking at something like this... and my friend emailing me telling me to document and do not be squeamish as this is life and no matter what I do will not change nature.

Hey Cindy does this look familiar!!!

It is 2.16 am in the morning and I am off for a shower and will watch a movie preferably pillage and plunder to get my mind off this little lot and hey I am passing it on...A Bad Hair Day ....


12 Comments:

Blogger K.H. Cho said...

such interesting reads! that must have been quite a thing to watch in person... anyway very vivid documentation, thank you. I felt very conscious of the hairs on my legs and had to scan the floors while reading...

April 30, 2010 at 6:17 AM  
Blogger Lizzie's Insomnia said...

Hey Jason, I am pleased you thought it interesting...and love the hares on your legs reference....lol

April 30, 2010 at 9:38 AM  
Blogger Oscar said...

Fantastic photos! Gruesome, yes, but fascinating. What a night you must have had, I could imagine you nervously looking over your shoulder thinking of Slytherin....

April 30, 2010 at 6:15 PM  
Blogger Lizzie's Insomnia said...

Thanks Tazar, I took them off Flickr as they looked so out of character to the flickr collections...they are a pretty creepy collection but at the same time amazing how nature copes...

When you go to Karumba should you run into my brother, highly likely, say G'day...Ron Kenyon and he has the Karumba Point Service Station and RACQ Depot. ...nieces and nephews abound around the place are you visiting officially with the marine side of things?

April 30, 2010 at 6:23 PM  
Blogger diane b said...

OMG ..a bad hare day hehehe. Bravo for crawling under the prickly bougainvillaea to take those shots wondering where Slytherine was. It is amazing how they get such big lumps down. I wonder if they suffer from indigestion.

April 30, 2010 at 11:11 PM  
Blogger Barry Nong said...

makes me feel quite peckish.
snake stuffed with hare yum

May 1, 2010 at 7:55 AM  
Blogger Oscar said...

I'll be in Karumba for work, a meeting organised by the Carpentaria Ghost Net Program - they're based in Karumba. And I'll be catching up with some barra fishermen.

I'll definitely say gidday to your brother if I run into him.

May 1, 2010 at 1:31 PM  
Blogger Lizzie's Insomnia said...

I did not for a minute think this snake would get the hare down Diane...and initially have a shot of the python opening its mouth wide and it was looking at me and jumped back lol and is blurred but would have been awesome if in focus..the wide mouth filling the lens...

Nongy,
Yum indeed....and will be at the coast in two weeks first time in twenty years have had a coast holiday and will be checking toes...lol...lol..note lol....

Tazar,

My niece who reads this sometimes was a barra fisherperson and lived on a boat for many years, I have not met her husband but no doubt you will run into her, Leeanne Crossland.

May 1, 2010 at 2:47 PM  
Blogger Artoholic said...

Hare raising indeed!

Awesome Elizabeth. It's quite a hypnotic thing to watch - all done in slow mo...

They don't seem to mind an audience whilst they dine, although the scrubbie swallowing a wallaby in the uni carpark did spit his lunch up halfway. From the sudience or the size of the meal I'm not sure.

Such a fascinating group of images.

SNAP!

Cheers,

Cindy

May 1, 2010 at 3:13 PM  
Blogger Margaret D said...

Nature at it's best and you captured it. Don't think I could have done that. Your photos are excellent as always, but I am glad it wasn't a video, couldn't stomach that.
Thanks for sharing with us.

May 1, 2010 at 6:13 PM  
Blogger Neil McCore said...

wow .. an interesting story and a beautiful pictures
Nature is beautiful and equally cruel, sometimes.
I hope to see your new photos and read some other story of your life.
Greetings
Neil

May 3, 2010 at 6:33 PM  
Blogger Lizzie's Insomnia said...

Thank you for dropping by Margaret, Neil, anon, am just catching up...sorry for the delay and do appreciate your input...allows me to feel am not alone as it were..just talking to the computer...lol..

June 8, 2010 at 8:58 AM  

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