Paphos Life

I could not believe when I looked this morning through the window and a beautiful coin snake looked at me at a distance of 30 cm...so I am going to share it with you....



more close


close-up to look into the eye


Max

Such beautiful pictures Max. Thank you for sharing them.

Loved these pictures, thank you.

It was also amazing to see how good the eyesight of this snake was. When I tried to do photos while making no noise at all, I was pointing the camera at a distance of ca 5 m on the edge of the house wall, so it could see only the camera, but this was already enough to make it disappear behind the panel. After 1/2 hour or so it came back to the same spot and luckily i managed to get 5 pics until the same happened again....

Max

cyprusmax47 wrote: ↑Mon Jun 05, 2023 9:12 am When I tried to do photos while making no noise at all,

Snakes have no hearing or even anything resembling ears. Of course, they can sensitively detect vibrations through the ground but not through the air.

Devil wrote: ↑Mon Jun 05, 2023 10:09 am

cyprusmax47 wrote: ↑Mon Jun 05, 2023 9:12 am When I tried to do photos while making no noise at all,

Of course, they can sensitively detect vibrations through the ground but not through the air.

That was what I meant with:" no noise at all". (my English is sometimes not that exact)

25 years ago I went many times to places in the forest to find and collect snakes ( mainly blunt-nose vipers) together with "Snake George" in order to bring them to his snake park. So I know also a little bit about snakes in Cyprus beside photovoltaics....

Max

Is it just me or are there a lot of snakes around this year? So far, I've already seen six, including a curious (and harmless) worm snake that found its way into the house! Ordinarily I might only see a couple of snakes a year.

wantoosoon wrote: ↑Mon Jun 05, 2023 11:53 am Is it just me or are there a lot of snakes around this year? So far, I've already seen six, including a curious (and harmless) worm snake that found its way into the house! Ordinarily I might only see a couple of snakes a year.

I was driving criss-cross our Paphos countryside yesterday (Tsada, Stroumpi, Kathikas, Arodes, Akourdalia, Simou, Polemi etc) on roads one can see often remains of dead snakes. However i have seen nothing this time ..... luckily.

Max

Sadly, I have seen some drivers deliberately drive over them.

Firefly wrote: ↑Wed Jun 07, 2023 11:38 am Sadly, I have seen some drivers deliberately drive over them.

Mostly locals with low education do that. They even kill the whip snake, not knowing that it reduces also the population of the dangerous viper, besides rats and mice. So, If you have a black whip snake in your garden you are very lucky....

Here a photo from the one is living at my place



Max

I have one as a very occasional visitor, perhaps three sightings in the last 10 years. They skedaddle out of sight much faster than you can say "Jack Robinson"! We have seen three other species including the BNV and the worm snake – not quite sure of the identity of the third one.

Yes, we had one in our garden at Drousea. We weren't aware of it, until it went over my foot, when I was painting the fence. That was a bit of a shock, as I didn't see it, before I felt it.