Field Herper.com

Field notes and photography by Bryan D. Hughes
Feb
13th
2013

Neonate Rock Rattlesnakes

We started out earlier than we should have, with the weather what it was … more for logistics than activity. It’s always better to be early than late, and we were definitely early. By the time we got our stuff together and climbed to the place where all the snakes would be, the fog and cloud cover was still hugging the mountain with no sign of lifting. After sitting around for at least an hour, we got to work anyway. It wasn’t long before Rich found 3 tiny baby rock rattlesnakes sitting out in the open. They were the first of a good number of this species found that day, and it’s always fun to find multiples.

Here are a couple – I’ll post others another day.

See him there? I could have gotten closer, but lately I’ve enjoyed taking shots like this – the snake in the environment it’s in, which better tells the tale. Photographers tend to gripe about it, the subject being so small, but that’s not really what this is all about.

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This one was showing off some caudal luring skills. If I were a lizard, I’d certainly think that yellow wiggler was breakfast.

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This one

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6 Responses to “Neonate Rock Rattlesnakes”

  1. Marianne says:

    What a beauty! I totally agree with you regarding having more of the surroundings. It gives a really sense of how easily they can be missed or stepped on! By the way….without Google Reader, I’m missing many of my favorite blogs. I haven’t checked into other ways to be notified of new blogs yet. Do you know of any?

  2. I’ve switched to Feedly – I really like it actually. It’s a little more usable than even google reader, sad to say.

  3. I’m using bryan.hughes at me dot com

    I reallllly need to update this blog, too! so much to post.

  4. Crotalus says:

    Bryan, it has been a long time since i visited your blog, but I released those shovel-nosed snake I had in 2012. I wasn’t sure that they were eating. But tonight, (4/29/13) I caught another one, and caught a “walking stick” insect, which I put in with the new snake. The walking stick suddenly was gone from what I am pretty sure is an escape-proof cage, and when I handled the snake, I could feel the “stick” in its belly. Shovel-noses eat “walking sticks”! They DO eat insects! YESS!!

  5. haha, that’s a big meal! I kept them for a long time and they always ate crickets and wax worms for me without much trouble, though they eat a LOT of them!

  6. Nicole says:

    I love that it took me like 2 whole minutes of staring to find the snake in the first pic. Gorgeous shots as usual Bryan!

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