Spending the weekend in St Francis a couple of weeks ago I was looking out a window after breakfast when I saw something drop from the tree down onto the paving. I quickly stepped right up to the window for a closer look and spotted a boomslang slither along the wall. I quickly grabbed my camera and ran outside just in tome to see him disappear into the shrubs in the flower bed. I got the long lens onto the camera (yes my new camera) and snapped this pic of him through the garden. By then a couple of other guests had joined me with cameras and he even had a GoPro on a stick stuck in there for a bit of video.
We could see he was getting anxious so we gave him some space to get out of the corner and he quickly made his way up the tree on the other side of the paving. There he disappeared and only after a while did somebody spot him right at the top of the tree where I got the two photos above and below. What an awesome sighting!!!
The average adult Boomslang (or tree snake) - Dispholidus typus - is around 100 – 160 cm in length but can exceed 183 cm (6 feet). Males are light green with black or blue scale edges (like this one) while the adult females may be brown. The Boomslang has a highly potent venom (hemotoxic) that gets delivered through large fangs that are located in the back of the jaw. They are able to open their jaws up to 170 degrees when biting. It is generally a timid snake and bites generally occur only when people attempt to handle, catch or kill the animal so it is unlikely to be a significant source of human fatalities.
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