Kookaburras don’t usually laugh in the daytime. Their calls ring out at dawn and dusk, a raucous chorus that can provoke homesickness in any Australian unfortunate enough to be stuck in country with less interesting birds.
But at midday on a clear day in January, a kookaburra’s laugh gives you pause. Enough to notice the brown snake moving quietly through the grass a few feet away, intent on business that does not concern you but might if you carried on unawares and accidentally trod on it.
