“What we’re looking for the green-backed honeyeater,” Brian said. “You haven’t seen one, have you?”

“I wouldn’t know if I fell over one,” Glen laughed. “Honeyeaters are honeyeater as far as I’m concerned. They’re all the same.”

“Well if you did see it you wouldn’t know what the fuss is all about. It’s a very plain bird. But this is the only place you can see it. In fact, it restricts itself to this little place of the forest. You can’t see it in Portland Roads. You can't see it at Chili Beach. You can’t see it anywhere else but right here.”

“That’s the thing about Iron Range,” Glen said. “There are so many things that are just here.”

“Most of New Guinea, too,” Brian added.

“So what’s our best chance of seeing a chondropython?” Glen asked.

“Nighttime. In the rain.”

“They come down to the ground in the rain?”

“Yeah, you see them on the ground often.”

“Is that right! I’ve always wanted to see one,” Glen went on, “I’ve always been into snakes. And just to see one in the wild. I mean, you see them in captivity, but I’d love to see one in the wild.”

“But just don’t go poaching them,” Brian warned. “They’ve all got silicon chips in them.”

“Good,” said Glen. “I’m glad. It’s gonna get to that stage, isn’t it?”

“Well the national parks have been inserting chips under their skin,” Brian explained, “and they’ve caught something like one hundred and fifty over a period of a year, and they’ve only ever had four recaptures. So it suggests that there’s quite a reasonable population.”

We talked a few more minutes, then, both parties needing to move on, wished each other a fond goodbye.

“Good on ya people,” Glen said. “Enjoy.”

We got back into the Land Rover with Glen positively glowing. More so than usual.

“What’s up?”

“That was Brian Benowits,” He said excitedly. “He keeps himself tucked away, but in ornithological circles he is very well known. He’s like, the man! You come here to go bird watching, that’s the dude you speak to.”

“Very cool,” I said, and meant it.

Searching for the Chondropython at night was like searching for a needle in a haystack. Only you have to imagine a hay colored needle. And, of course, being that Chondropythons are an arboreal species, they tend to spend their time high up in the trees. So now the hay colored needle is not only hay colored – difficult enough – but also 20 or so meters above you.

The needle, to be fair, does come down to the ground when it rains, so there was an opportunity still to see them. But it didn’t rain, and we never did encounter one.