I love love LOVE America's Unique Snake!!! We take rattlers for granted but they really exist nowhere else on Earth and they're SO WEIRD compared to other snakes! My fave is the Bastard Rattler!
As someone who lives far north/west, I miss snakes, the only reptiles I grew up with. Was raised to grab every snake I saw (for the garden, as bug control). A place with rattlesnakes would challenge my snake instincts. Look forward to hearing about your the reptiles lured to your garden.
Nah, rattlers are actually pretty chill as long as you don't scare them. This guy's seen that hey, there's stuff going on here, probably not great for sneks, and will slither elsewhere.
Rattlesnakes are usually the most polite of snakes. They don’t want you to step on them, you don’t want to step on them, they give a quick buzz and everybody is on the same page.
The only deeply unchill rattler I ever met was in Texas, and it was Not In The Mood For Humans.
The only angry rattler I’ve encountered was on a hike in the Utah mountains near Stewart Falls. Poor snake was mad about the Great Dane someone had brought on their hike. Fortunately my son-in-law was alert and kept everyone separated for their own good.
The only wild one I've seen in person was an angry boy, but he'd picked a sunning spot beside a road in a National Park in good weather in the busiest season.
If I was getting passed by something several times larger than the biggest predator in my neighborhood every five minutes I'd be angry too!
Except I've never been big on hiking, lived where their predators were the chief snakes to the point of Forget About It, and the timber rattlers in that NP are black phase. He was doing REALLY WELL camouflaging himself on summer asphalt.
Now, the COPPERHEADS by the overlook that road leads to...
In any event, that is the sixth reptile species found at Deserthaus. (I am keeping VERY CAREFUL notes this time, so that when our ecological restoration gets really going, we can track the increase in species. (Hopefully there will be an increase.)
That's so cool!
One of my special skills is that I can identify a goathead plant from its first tiny baby leaves. If I live anywhere long enough, I will eventually have it goathead-free.
Most of the job, sadly, is not nearly so fun—about 90% of what he does all day is pull tumbleweeds and kochia. But this is the first and worst year, and there will be a lot fewer next year.
But hey, if you’re in or around ABQ and want the name of a really fabulous small-scale eco restoration guy to make your yard/field/dead zone into something waterwise and good for the world, http://www.coloradonativeplants.com
I’ve got a birdbath with drip and a fountain that has a nice gurgle in the back. I keep thinking about maybe digging a pond or something, but it would be tough to keep filled.
yeah a regular pond would probably just waste water
i’m thinking of adding something like this to my land, just not sure where/ if it’s advisable when i walk my dog outside like 5x a day
we’ve seen a lot less wildlife this drought season 🥺
So far that’s one of the few southwest critters I’ve not seen around the house since moving to TX 6 yrs ago. That’s a good thing, because the young ones are still in full curiosity mode.
I never saw a rattlesnake in the wild, so I wonder if my "SNABIES LOVE TO CUDDLE" reflex would win over my "SEAN IT'S A DANGERNOODLE IT DOES NOT WANT TO CUDDLE" logic.
welllllllllllllllllllllllllll.... when I was a teen, we were at the Blue Jay State forest, and I was walking on a trail next to some hedges, and heard a sound, and looked in and saw a snake rattling its tail against the litter, and stepped into the hedge and picked up the snake, who then struck.
I pulled back in time that the snake got a thread of my flannel shirt, and that's when I thought, "Oh yeah, rattlesnakes can lose all their rattles sometimes." So, naturally, I brought the snake back to our camp site, and let her loose in our tent, and waited for my parents to come back and ID her.
Yeah, you wouldn't think that noise would go to the hindbrain quite so solidly when only the last five generations of your ancestry have overlapped with rattlesnakes--but I think I cleared a sagebrush at a standing leap when I met one. First time my fear response defaulted to flight!
I don’t remember hearing it, but the coiled shape was clear when I met one at Enchanted Rock in Texas. It was on cool rock in the shade and probably lethargic. Like your sagebrush-clearing leap, I levitated a couple of feet to the right and a foot up with no conscious thought at all.
I have not seen the rattlesnake my friends and I met up at Castle Rock, but the first person around the corner on the path said "Oops scary rattlesnake" and dashed back toward us,
while snek said "rattle rattle scary mammals coming",
dashed into a bush avoiding us, and we exited stage backwards.
I've met them in the wild (and gone the other way when asked politely by the rattletail) but the most disturbing encounter with a rattler was when, in 8th grade science, I got assigned the lab table next to the old, blind rattlesnake
It would strike frequently, hit the plexi, and we'd all jump.
(Mrs. C had also been my father's science teacher 30 years earlier, she had a room full of critters, bookcases full of formaldehyded critters, and she also did the cloud chamber experiment for us all.
(Yes. A cloud chamber experiment to see radioactive decay. With uranium. In an 8th grade class.)
Awww, she reminds me of my 8th grade science teacher! She taught us to mix our own gunpowder, add coloring metals, and the make fireworks in used-up yarn cones from the weaving room.
I'm confused. Your handle is Kingfisher and Wombat, yet they are Australian and you are living in the US. What's the connection? Ex-pat? You just like Australian fauna? 🐨 🦘
I'm 100% sure you already know this, but the subreddit https://reddit.com/r/whatsthissnake is an incredible resource (and also a wonderful way to spend time in the bathroom when IBS won't let you leave) (speaking from experience here)
Rattlers are the only snake I trust for exactly this reason. I do not know what any snake is, but I know this snake would like me to back up and I can respect that.
There’s a lake about a mile from here named after my family. Acquired by the Nature Conservancy, not in honor of my 2x great grandfather, but to preserve Eastern Massasuaga rattler habitat. Sic transit gloria mundi.
A few years ago my parents had a trip up to Algonquin and came across a very large adult Massasauga rattler in the middle of the trail. They were -thrilled-. They waited patiently for it to move, took many pictures from a distance, and proudly reported it as a sighting when they got home.
there an open space park in north CO very popular for short hikes named Rabbit Mt, but was Rattlesnake Mt formerly. I & many can attest the original name befits the seen fauna but isn't as friendly for marketing.
Are they responsive to other animals' noises? Like if I say in a regretful tone, "Alright, fine," as I move away, is there a chance they won't give me a parking ticket?
Yip! It's one of the two obvious differences between snakes and legless lizards (they also don't have movable eyelids). They are very good at feeling vibrations.
Basically, a long time ago, some lizard decided to hide underground for a few million years.
Walking along and one of my companions transported about 3 feet to the left. About 8" from where her right sandal had been was a subspecies of Pacific Rattlesnake.
Not moving at all.
We were actually half convinced it was dead. So we double checked.
My only rattler encounter was while hiking as a Boy Scout in appalachia. I saw it in the middle of the path, it rattled, I stepped back, it slithered away into the bush, everyone was very happy and no one was bitten.
I am chill with garter snakes. But I lived a long while in Texas, and I am much more afraid of an annoyed copperhead or a coral snake. At least rattlers warn you they're around.
Then there's a brown recluse in the garage. They come with every new garage, you know.
ugh, when one of my dogs steps on a goat head I feel like the worst guardian ever. Those evil things stop my pups in their tracks and I'm met with such weepy mournful eyes locked in with a "why ... why is this pain" stare. Oh poor pups.
When we first moved to Southern California, I opened the door one night to walk the dog, and saw a rattlesnake curled right outside the door. It was…unnerving.
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The only deeply unchill rattler I ever met was in Texas, and it was Not In The Mood For Humans.
I was NOT in the way for LONG!
If I was getting passed by something several times larger than the biggest predator in my neighborhood every five minutes I'd be angry too!
They are sneaky sneks, and you've probably looked right at one or two without noticing it camouflaged in the dirt...
Now, the COPPERHEADS by the overlook that road leads to...
Which would be great except that this is a shortgrass prairie/pinyon-juniper savannah, goddamnit, and there ought to be SO MANY MORE.
One of my special skills is that I can identify a goathead plant from its first tiny baby leaves. If I live anywhere long enough, I will eventually have it goathead-free.
yeah a regular pond would probably just waste water
i’m thinking of adding something like this to my land, just not sure where/ if it’s advisable when i walk my dog outside like 5x a day
we’ve seen a lot less wildlife this drought season 🥺
Especially among native plants and the variety of birds. Now we regularly get deer, foxes this year, raccoons, opossums, and more.
I think it'd slow you down long enough to transfer the grabby-hands enthusiasm to a friendlier critter
So, if I had actually encountered a rattler, I might in fact be dead.
Folks stopped to look into a gopher burrow. He started to film.
Folks levitated away from burrow. Merriment ensued. (No, it didn’t.)
They took away his camera and handed him a snake stick.
while snek said "rattle rattle scary mammals coming",
dashed into a bush avoiding us, and we exited stage backwards.
The ones I’ve seen in AZ are very pebbly and not in the mood for humans being around.
It would strike frequently, hit the plexi, and we'd all jump.
(Yes. A cloud chamber experiment to see radioactive decay. With uranium. In an 8th grade class.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingfisher
Apparently, they really like our hamburgers.
You're unlikely to get bit by a venomous snake (unless you somehow piss off a confused sea snake) but there are snakes in Hawaii now: https://animals.howstuffworks.com/snakes/blind-snake.htm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPh_Gi7PCqs
Basically, a long time ago, some lizard decided to hide underground for a few million years.
Find the snake, estimate minimum safe distance (a bit more than 1/3rd body length), skirt it (liberally) and be on my way.
But that's because lots of experience with snakes.
Scary one was hella chill.
Not moving at all.
We were actually half convinced it was dead. So we double checked.
It wasn't.
Then there's a brown recluse in the garage. They come with every new garage, you know.
Just reminded of @lartist.bsky.social drawing of a little snek telling it's mom about it's day...