Eastern Small-eyed Snake

Thanks everyone for your help and comments. It seems to be correct that it's a small eyed snake, I was told the venom and bite packs a punch so am not keen to 'accidentally' stand on one. But they are beautiful to look at.

Whatever this snake is, it's quite good-looking. Thank you for sharing :)

Yeah definitely nigrescens. Red Bellies have a very different face to that. The only other one close to nigrescens is Crytophis boschmai, and the colour and scales on the head are wrong for that.

Are you kidding me? No more cat hair!! I could probably make one of those in the lab. Just need some parts haha Good to keep my goat company. PS: You shouldn't encourage my delusions, Mark.

Did you hear about the goat cross cat Neil? :-]

Oh I'm so sorry to hear about your goats. I'll be going rural in the (hopefully not-too-distant) future, so I'm sure it's something I'll also have to contend with. I love goats :-)

Thanks Mark & Neil. Mark I received your email that Nathan agrees with the suggestion of Cryptophis nigrescens, but it hasn't appeared on PN yet, so I think I will go with that ID. I feel it is also the right one. I cannot find anything else that matches. Neil it was a good looking snake (they all are when you take time to look after the initial fright!). I really don't think it could see that well as it was striking at shadows, very pretty, the colours in the photo are true to life (the pink maybe a bit brighter if seen on site). Down side to living on the edge of a swamp with pets is that I've lost 2 prize pet goats in the last 2 days to snake bite most likely a different species to this one though..

Oh wow, what a spotting!! Beautiful. My first impression was that it's a python, but I reckon Mark is right. I've never seen or heard of this species before. A very handsome looking snake.

Thanks Shanna & Nathan. Yes that was the other sticking point the colour. From experience I know there are so many variations in the natural world. It could be as you say about to shed as there were a couple of scales here & there that were darker grey. That would also account for the extra aggressive behaviour. The Red-bellies here are usually deep glossy black too. Do you think the face looks different?

Thanks Mark I had trouble trying to post these photos so glad at least one got through. I had initially thought it was an eastern small eyed snake, as the colours matched better & it's in the right area, ran it by a local person who disagreed with me. So went to the Red-bellied Black although I'm not entirely convinced of that ID.

I checked with Nathan re the colour - wondering if it's leucistic. He thinks it's probably just about to shed. Small-eyed snakes are usually glossy black with a gorgeous rainbow sheen (like oil on water).

Nathan, Shanna - can you help?

The scales around the face and jaw line seem wrong for 'Pseudechis porphyriacus' but what would I know about snakes. Colours might fit with 'Cryptophis nigrescens' ??