It's not just us

One of the things not often mentioned is that when there's a fire, there are other species besides us that seek shelter. I've heard tales of people sharing their 'safe haven' with an assortment of other creatures, which apparently put their natural animosities 'on hold' for the occasion. Apparently.

This snake lives somewhere around my place. I see it from time to time, usually earlyish in the morning when it's basking, as today.
Invariably, I think it's something else, at first, having thoughts like: "I don't remember a black hose being there... oh, it has scales" and on one occasion: "That's a remarkably big slug..." (It's about 3 feet long!)

Not being a herpetologist, I don't know what species it is. But despite its blackness, it's probably an eastern brown, which are often black. Hard to tell without a clear view of the head, but I wasn't going to ask it to move for the camera.

Some might say "How can you live with snakes in your backyard?" - to which I might answer that, around here, pretty much everybody has snakes in their backyard, or nearby anyway. There are rather a lot, but we rarely see them, so we think they're not there (if we think about it at all) - until we find them sharing our fire refuge...

By lunchtime, this snake was warmed up and had gone about its business. Doubtless, I'll see it again - preferably at a bit of a distance and not in the actual house!