In clement weather I often leave my office door ajar - as it opens onto the verandah area it is frequently investigated by inquisitive wildlife for reasons of shelter or food.

For many years these visitors were mainly birds and insects with occasional lizards. However since global warming has become headline news the spectrum of guests has broadened and some have challenged my equanimity at the keyboard.

Here a small red-belly black snake (Pseudechis porphyriacus) lies behind a monitor, well-camouflaged amongst the cables.

So far the most exciting - for us anyway - visit has been a carpet python. We refurbished and reorganised the workshed over a period of weeks and Rastus, our cat and rat-controller took up residence.

Shortly thereafter the python which had been happily doing rat-control in the shed decided that was no longer a friendly environment and came looking for a similarly-appointed space.

Where better than a place where there are some heat-generating boxes which offer dry and warmth while digesting the last meal?

After trying to concentrate for 30 minutes or so it became obvious that I wasn't totally focussed on the work at hand and so I gently encouraged the snake to find somewhere else.

On her way out (or so I thought) she decided to check up on my efforts.

Naturally the quality of work had suffered somewhat from my poor concentration and she demonstrated her contempt in a typical fashion!

And so began an hour's fun and games - first of all she needed to check some of the books.

Then - of course it was important to check out the top shelf.

At this stage I still hadn't seen her tail-end and what I had originally thought was a metre-or-so was steadily becoming 2+ metres!

At last the full length became visible and, unfortunately, she discovered the light bulb which was steadily pumping out its incandescent warmth.

However the light bulb was fairly exposed and my incessant attention was - quite simply - unwelcome.

She decided to return to the seprent-sized gap above the books and get comfortable.

Continued gentle encouragment finally persuaded her to take a look at the outside world.




This clearly wasn't very enticing.

The outside world was clearly unappealing compared to the current environment and so she curled up again.

This time - resigned to my presence and attentions - within the warmth of the light's radiance.

At least she was no out-of-site from my desk and I thought I could get some work done on the website.

Alas - I was not up to the task - I suppose 100% concentration on the monitor was not possible with the knowledge a 2.5 metre snake was coiled some 500mm above.

All thought of work now evaporated and I was no longer in a mood to take "no" for an answer.

The gentle encouragement to depart resumed.

She still seemed interested in what I had been doing and seemed to want to have another look at the monitor.

Enough is enough!

At last she deigned to put her head out the window and - much to my dismay - discovered the other side of the opening was within reach.

Unfortunately - the stretch was too much with an audience wielding a broom handle - gently, mind you - and she withdrew to reconsider her options.

However she soon understood that down was the direction to go - to minimise the gentle harassment and so she stretched out vertically to have a closer inspection.

Thias move inevitably drew her attention to the indoors again and she started slithering back towards the computers.

At this point I felt it had all gone quite far enough and abandoned the camera to allow me two-hands on the broom handle and she was evicted fairly painlessly.

I, however, had lost my oppotunity to work as the time was after 10pm.

• Satin Bower Birds
• Cockatoos
• Bird feeding contests
• Ducks.
• Finches & Mannikins
• Flycatchers
• Tawny Frogmouth
• Herons
• Honeyeaters

• Birds of Prey
• Kingfishers
• Lorikeets
• Parrots
• Pigeons and Doves.
• Plovers - Masked Lapwing
• Welcome Swallows
• Feeding Welcome Swallow Chicks
• Water Birds (other)
• Birds without a page of their own

• Platypus.
• Koalas
• Possums

• Carpet pythons
• Water Dragons
• Tree Snakes.

• Frogs.

• Insects

• Encounters with the domestics.

• A Midnight Visitor.