The Wildlife Lounge

The Wildlife Lounge will show images of some of the eighty plus species of birds that are resident, weekly visitors or migratory birds that we see in our garden during a year.  Many of the resident species allow me unprecendented close access to them.  They have become so used to me lying on the ground or sitting close to them to get the shots that they almost ignore my presence.  For some of the shots I wear full cammo kit or am sitting behind a mobile hide.  We have more than twelve species of snake from the beautiful Red Tailed Boa (Boa Constictor), to a very small, blind subterranean snake I have yet to identify.   We have visiting Common Marmostes (Callithrix jacchus) from the wild woods on the other side of a garden wall.  We also have more bug and ant species than is believable and here in the Lounge you will be able to see them as I photograph them.

Green Parrot Snake (Leptophis ahaetulla)

For this close-up head shot of the Green Parrot Snake (above), I had worked with the snake for about 30 minutes, taking shots from a variety of angles.  The snake was very relaxed and allowed me to get my camera lens within about 10 cm of it.  I took this shot to make it look like the snake was almost floating in front of me.  (Note:  do not try this type of wildlife photography unless you have experience with snakes and are certain that it is non-venemous).  This species is a very common visitor to our garden.

Brazilian Green Racer (Philodryas viridissimus)

Another frequent visitor to the garden, the  Brazilian Green Racer truely lives up to its name.   They are extremely fast snakes and move over the ground or through the branches of trees very quickly indeed.  They prey mainly on tree frogs, but will take small lizards and young birds and eggs.  They do not constrict thier prey, but use only thier mouths to grab, move it around until the head of thier prey is pointing towards the throat, then it appears to be grabbed by the neck/body muscles and pulled into the snakes body.  I worked with this snake for about two hours before it would let me get a good series of close-up images.