My wife and I found this baby Striped Whipsnake, Coluber taeniatus, under some asphalt shingles out in the middle of the woods for some reason. His clouded eyes, filled with fluid to help him slip out of his old skin, made this already aggressive species even more pissy. His close cousin Coluber bilineatus has had more teeth in me in these last years than any other species. These snakes are assholes.
I was out on the last day in August with my good herping friend Kris Haas dodging flash floods and racking up the snakes when we found a neonate Mojave Rattlesnake, Crotalus scutulatus, making his way across the road. I slammed on the brakes, dropped my window, and sent us backwards to confirm the snake and park for photos. Before I was able to turn off the car we could hear the familiar “ssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhchchchc” way off into the desert to our right; it was another snake. We couldn’t believe it, by the sound of it the snake was qay off in the distance, and it seemed unlikely it could possibly be rattling at us at this distance. Kris went off to catch the little guy, and I went off into the bushes to find the noisy guy.
He was easy to find; I just followed the sound. He was under a tree a good 100′ or more from where we first heard him inside the truck with the engine running. Crazy luck.
Here’s the little guy, followed by the angry noise maker.
A young Mojave Rattlesnake, Crotalus scutulatus, hiding in the grass in Southern Arizona. If there were any snake in Arizona that I would step on if I had to, this species would not be it.
Here’s a rarity for this website and me in general, a rattlesnake found far from Arizona. I went up to my 10 year highschool reunion in 2007, but ended up spending most of my time in the hills surrounding my hometown armed with a lot more knowledge about how to find the local rattlesnakes. This one was as big as any rattlesnake I’ve ever seen in Arizona, and extremely aggressive towards me. It’s a Great Basin Rattlesnake, Crotalus oreganus lutosus, which can be found in Arizona as well, though I have not yet gone looking for them. I found a few others in my time up there, and I’ll post those at another time. My camera gear and photographic skill were both severely lacking at the time, so it’s hard to get over myself on some really unfortunate missed shots.
This subadult Black-Tailed Rattlesnake, Crotalus molossus, is the typical low-contrast brown seen in the Sonoran desertscrub areas of most of Arizona. In many areas this can take a green, orange, or even pinkish tint, but this one is pretty straight brown. Nonetheless, their pattern is one of the best looking, in my opinion, of the large-bodied rattlesnakes in Arizona, and their calm attitude is always welcome, except for being a bit difficult to photograph as they continually try to slide away without a fight.
In late April and early May, I can’t even say how many times I’ve found a sidewinder while another snake is mid-capture. This one was a little different in that they were right on top of eachother. I’m unable to sight-sex this species, so I can’t say whether it was mating behavior or just coincidental sharing of a warm spot in the side-road gravel, but 2 snakes at once is definitely a cool find.
Here’s another great example of the sneaky camouflage capabilities of one of the most commonly seen rattlesnakes in the sandy desertscrub, the Sonoran Sidewinder, Crotalus cerastes cercobombus. I found probably 200 of these guys in 2009 alone, and still stop for almost every one. Most of the pictures just go into my collection and never make it here, and I hope my interest in finding them never leaves me.
This isn’t a field photo, but still pretty cool. It’s my big all-black Arizona Black Rattlesnake, Crotalus cerberus, with white eyes as he prepares to shed his skin.
Nothing particularly special about this female Western Diamondback Rattlesnake, Crotalus atrox, but I liked how clean the pattern is. Especially when compared to the dirty, speckled coloration of the atrox near my home, this one looks very nice.
In 2009 I only saw 3 Desert Glossy Snakes, Arizona elegans eburnata. From a distance or at speed they look superficially like gophersnakes, but that long nose and almost rat-snake looking face makes for a good find. They’re really cool snakes, and I really wish I found more of them. Every one so far looks a little different.
NOTICE All images on this website are Copyright © Bryan D. Hughes and may not be copied, downloaded, printed, or otherwise recreated without permission. If you have a request, please ask me. Violators are subject to legal action.
Site designed by Bryan D. Hughes, Zigbot Media.
Entries (RSS)
and Comments (RSS).
Powered by WordPress