Last year a colleague and I took a quick trip to the Hunter Valley region. Although work was our top priority we did find just a little bit of time to do some herping. The region we went to was near Pokolbin State Forest which is up near Cessnock. It is a beautiful area, well worth the visit.

Our main objective was to see a few snakes. We visited an area where my mate had seen one of the largest Diamond Pythons he had ever seen. No luck in finding any of these but we were lucky to go one better. Drive the roads up there at night and you might be lucky enough to come across these two beauties.

Vermicella annulata or the Bandy-bandy as they are known to most people. Truly amazing snake throwing itself into body loops as a form of self defense. Even more amazing is its colour and banding. When these snakes move quickly the black and white banding creates a visual effect called vision confusion, making it difficuly to accurately pin point the snake. 

The other snake we found was a beautiful little Red-naped Snake (Furina diadema). This species only reaches a length of about 400mm TL. This one would have been about 300mm. They feed almost exclusively on skinks which apparently they hunt and capture at night when the skinks are sleeping. A very attractive little snake.

Cheers

Joe