RATTLESNAKE 101

[desertrunner]

Picture taken today in North LA County as lot of rattlers are out now...(not my snake)

[Dan Druff]

In 1977 I was throwing a tennis ball against my house in the backyard, and catching it. I threw it too hard and it bounced next to the rose bush my dad had recently planted.

I was shocked to see the ball sitting next to the head of a very scary looking snake. I abandoned it, ran inside, and told my mom. She asked me what it looked like, and I replied, "It had a diamond on its head."

It was most likely a diamond back rattlesnake:




My mom went out and looked, and there was no snake there anymore. Maybe I scared it?

That thing was big, though.


More recently I have encountered a number of them on area hiking trails, especially in April. It gets cold enough here in the winter to where the snakes hibernate, and April tends to be when they wake up hungry and look for food. It is not uncommon to see them on the sides of trails, ominously shaking their rattles and looking angry.

One year I ran into two snakes fucking on the open trail, which was something I had never seen before. They look like they're just constantly twisting into knots with one another. There is no back-and-forth motion as you see with mammals. Oddly this was in September, which would put the resulting egg hatching date into November or December -- right into winter! Not smart! I would have thought the snakes would have avoided mating so close to when hibernation would typically start, but I guess they don't have a feel for it.

I have a minuite-long video of this in case anyone is interested.

[desertrunner]

I knew Druff wound have a good snake story to share. Hopefully he go camping this summer with Ben and reports back some new material. Thanks.