In a wash near my home this year, I focused on just a few individual diamondbacks. On one trip, I looked into a hole and found both a desert tortoise and a diamondback sitting there together! I got my camera out, stuck my head in the hole, and turned on the light. CH-CH-SHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! The diamondback flared up and retreated over the shell of the tortoise. I got some pics of the tortoise anyway, but they didn’t turn out well. I was pretty disappointed, thinking that wouldn’t be something I’d see again any time soon.
Fast forward 3 days, and in a different burrow, with a different tortoise and different snake, not even 50 yards away:
I returned to the area every day for the next couple of weeks (except a few lazy days). The tortoise was always there, but the diamondback moved on. Still … it’s not common you get a chance to make up a missed shot.
Tags: atrox, Crotalus, desert tortoise, Gopherus agassizii, rattle snake, rattlesnake, western diamondback
