The snake that wasn't

This morning my attention was drawn to the mix of small trees and various shrubs along the upper side of our compound. A small cacophony of avian hysteria, of the sort that typically announces the presence of a predator--cat, snake, owl, or something like that--made me sure that something was upsetting the frantic birds. As I approached, I noticed several species in the party, including olive-bellied sunbird, red-cheeked cordon-bleu, speckled mousebird, common bulbul, tawny-flanked prinia and white-browed robin chat. Scanning the branches and foliage to find out what they were upset about, I saw this:















That horizontal shadow running across the middle of the image is thicker than any of the other branches in the vicinity, and my first impression was exactly the same as the birds', I'm sure: This is one monster of a cobra!

Taking a closer look, though, I realized our collective mistake. The top third or so of the attenuated trunk of a pawpaw tree that has been dying for several months had finally bent over and was lying across the upper parts of the woody shrubs beneath it. The fact that it had not been there in that position before, its slightly curved shape, and the greyish, somewhat scalloped and scaly texture of its surface all combined to give a very snaky initial impression!

So, no snake on this occasion, and I'm not overly disappointed, even if I was temporarily the victim of a natural scam. It was at least as effective as a scarecrow in a grain field in fooling the local bird population, besides taking me in too.