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Thursday, October 6, 2011

Not Rattled by the Rattler

Trail out of the foothills
A beautiful, cool morning on the trail today.  We saw only a few mountain bikers enjoying the wonderful Fall weather.  What we did see, near the end of our hike, was a small (2 ft.) Western Diamondback Rattlesnake.  It never rattled at us; in fact, it seemed pretty undisturbed by our presence, just flicking its black tongue out every once in a while.  We watched it for a few minutes, then went along on our merry way.
Looking for Jackrabbits

Shade break

Adolescent Western Diamondback Rattlesnake

Snake's tail, with very small rattle

Snake's head, with tongue extended

2 comments:

Dr. K said...

I wish you didn't get so close to the rattlesnakes you run into.

Scott said...

When we were floating the Middle Fork Salmon River in Idaho this summer, we had to rout three (count 'em!) rattlers from our campsite one evening before we set up our tents. I wonder how many we didn't see...? Here in Pennsylvania, they're mostly restricted to rocky cliffs in the Appalachians, where they are fairly common; I've seen them more than once along the Appalachian Trail.

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