Wannabe Rattlesnake

[xdeus]

My family might have saved this little guy's life even though he doesn't seem very happy with us.

A couple of maintenance guys were trimming the long grass around a storm pond at a county park across the street from our neighborhood. My son noticed that one of the guys looked like he had a snake, so of course I did what any herper would and backed up to get a better look. I got out of the car and saw one of the guys chuck the snake into the pond as if it was a rubber hose. I ran over there and yelled at them to leave it alone. The guy mentioned that he wasn't going to kill it but just wanted to make it go to the other side of the pond, but of course the snake just wanted to get back to land as soon as it could and came right back to them. I had the feeling they were just going to put a quick end to the little guy.

Anyway, the snake was pretty angry so my son brought my snake hook and sack. As we were picking it up I noticed a nice looking Garter snake about 10 feet away and placed him in the sack as well. I brought them both back to my yard and let them go... lots of native grass, shrubs, and gophers/field mice/frogs to keep both of them happy. I tried getting pics of the Garter, but he was just way too fast and took off before I could get a shot but not before he musked all over me.

These Gopher snakes are pretty amazing at mimicking the Rattlesnake as you can see. They love to shake their tail when they feel threatened and you can see how they spread their head out to look like the diamond shaped head of a Rattlesnake.

[python.princess]

that last shot is awesome!

[joepythons]

He looks like he wants to tear your head of .Good for you on removing him from danger

[Patrick Long]

yeah thats some really cool pictures.

[xdeus]

He looks like he wants to tear your head of .Good for you on removing him from danger

LOL... yeah, they can be pretty feisty. We found a couple of baby ones this year and they can be even more aggressive. I know their bite probably wouldn't hurt, but I'm more jumpy around them than an angry adult Ball for some reason.

[muddoc]

Very nice save, and very nice head shot Lawrence. Too bad you couldn't get a shot of the garter.

[missi182]

Hookey doodle, he does look alot like a rattler eh? But the tail is the first give away lol. I would have been a bit freaked out anyway.

[frankykeno]

What a great closeup of his head, Lawrence! I never knew they imitated a rattler so well.

[kc261]

What's really fun is if they are in a place with some dry leaves or something and they do that tail shaking thing. Then not only do they look somewhat like a rattler, they sound like one too!

The close up pic is just amazing! Thanks for sharing!

[Skiploder]

Just saw one of these being harrassed by a crow in western Marin yesterday.

Beautiful little bugger about 2.5' long. Crow flew off when we drove up. I used the hook to get him out of the road as he was quite agitated. No leaves to make the rattle noise but he took a couple of good lunges at me.