A long hike in good habitat, although colder than we’d have liked, produced one more rattlesnake before night fell. This small adult wedged in a rock, soon to join the others we could hear elsewhere rattling under rocks we had checked.
Along the way, and throughout the entire trip, we saw what was probably over 100 of these eft-stage newts out clumsily crawling over the wet ground. It’s hard not to step on them.
One of the common sights, a strip of woodland cleared up and down the hills to make way for pipeline.
Check out the camo on this little guy. See him? About 10″ long and holding perfectly still, it’s hard not to skip right over them while walking through the woods without a lifetime of search image development.
Another of the baby rimber rattlesnakes from the first location on our 2012 trip. The little guys were everywhere! Not a buzz to be heard.
… and another just a few feet away. The heavily ridged nose on them looks very different than the rattlesnakes I’m used to seeing in Arizona, as well as the large size.
After being picked up at the airport and going to a place to change clothes and get into the field, we were only a few steps into what could be considered ‘habitat’ and Kris saw his lifer Eastern Gartersnake sitting out in the open. We got photos and left without disturbing it.
Surprisingly, we didn’t see a Northern Watersnake, Nerodia sipedon sipedon, on my first trip out East last year. Being incredibly common throughout most of the US, it’s more surprising to me I’d never even seen any species of Nerodia! The first one happened unceremoniously by noticing that one of the ‘frogs’ spooked into the water while walking a ponds edge was actually a snake. I didn’t even know what it was until later, out of the sunlight, where I could examine the photograph in the viewfinder of my camera to learn that I had just photographed my first of the species.
A short time later, before I had even learned that the above snake was a watersnake, I spotted on sticking its head out of the rocks catching some rays.
Then I got to experience Nerodia’s famous personality, as well as it’s anticoagulant saliva.
Photo by Kris Haas
154574_4161498079103_1333615260_33824740_1173094143_n
Number 3 of 11 at this spot, out in the light rain.
For the second year in a row, I flew out to Pennsylvania to meet some friends and go in search of Timber Rattlesnakes, and any of the other very non-desert herpetofauna there is to see. Without the who’s and where’s, within 4 hours of stepping off the plane we were staring at our first Crotalus horridus, 4 of them in fact, all babies sitting out in light rain.
These are the first two, with more to come. We found 11 total at this spot, with the adults nowhere to be found except for signs that we just missed them.
So I’ve lived and herped in Arizona for many years now, and I’ve never gone right over to California to do the same. I think it’s because I’ve always just thought … hey, it’s right there, a few hours away, I can always get to it when I get to it. Well this year I finally got to it, accepting an invitation from a friend and bringing another along. We visited San Diego county and had one of those trips where everything goes perfectly. We ended up seeing quite a few snakes, more or less just moving from one to the next with only a few minutes gap in between, photographing as we went. Along the way, I found my lifer (very first found and photographed) Red Diamond Rattlesnake, Crotalus ruber, Southern Pacific Rattlesnake, Crotalus helleri, and San Diego Gophersnake, Pituophis catenifer annectens. We also saw on the trip a variety of other snakes, including California kingsnake in a stripe phase, glossy snakes, longnosed snakes, a coastal rosy boa, and a Sonoran lyresnake.
I have yet to go through most of the photos yet, but here’s a shot of the second of our ruber finds, out on the crawl and worked with for this shot.
I also must note that as this post is being published, I am back in Pennsylvania, probably looking at a timber rattlesnake right now. Woo!
Heading to my target location a week ago, early in the morning, I came across a horse trailer parked crooked in the middle of the dirt road. From experience, this means one thing: there’s a rattlesnake in front of the truck. I met a cowboy there who was shooting a handgun into a pile of rocks only feet away. Not a physics major or decent shot, both the snake and redneck were unharmed when I jumped out of the truck to get the snake. I lied a bit and declared my self a ‘researcher’ and I need to take the snake with me. I had my relocation bucket handy so I threw it in there, and then heard some of the typical redneck lies that fly out of these fools’ mouths any time there’s an excuse to shoot at something. What a silly idea that is, what an optional encounter, to run up to a rattlesnake and create a dangerous situation where there previously was none. Did he believe the snake would jump through the air, crash through the windshield, and kill him from the side of the road? He must have, or he’s an idiot, like all the others who go from zero to sixshooter as soon as the opportunity presents itself.
I waited until their trucks disappeared around the corner and released the snake to the same place. I guess I’ll have to find another diamondback for my ‘research’.
The snake was massive, I’d estimate between 50-55″ based on its length compared to my 46″ hook. He did not deserve to be a belt; not today.
Also, tomorrow at this time I’ll be on a plane on my way back to PA for more timber rattlesnakes!
Amazingly on this night, we only saw one rattlesnake despite the seemingly excellent conditions and 3 experienced field herpers searching an area well known to us. Oh well … the snake was not disturbed and never so much as stuck out a tongue at us. Photographed and left in this position without disturbance.
Unlike most coachwhips I’ve seen, this guy just sat there and let us photograph him. Found and left alone exactly in this position.
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