This is the second rattlesnake in my yard in a few weeks, plus the one I relocated from my neighbor's yard. I've never seen one in my yard before though I've seen a couple on this block relatively close.

What I'm guessing is that this is actually a normal number of rattlesnakes, but I am seeing them now because I'm usually not here in early May, plus we had that bizarre heat wave in late March, which probably woke all the snakes up and brought them out of hibernation early. This is also probably why it feels like there are far more lizards than I've ever seen here before. I usually have to leave by late April and it's usually not this hot yet.

The fact that we had an extremely dry winter and there's virtually no annual vegetation growing anywhere probably also contributes. No plants means no flowers which means no seeds which means no food for rodents, so I'm guessing that snakes probably have to wander much further to try to find a meal.

#Rattlesnake #HerpReport #LizardReport #snek

This afternoon I was planting some cactus in the front yard and I saw the big gopher snake again, slithering along the wall…

"Gopher snake"... um... then I saw the black and white striped tail and the rattles as it emerged from behind a cactus. Another western diamondback rattlesnake!

I got my camera with the telephone lens and got a bunch of close-ups, then went back to get my snake stick and a bucket. Unfortunately the critter was behind a very spiny hedgehog cactus and pulling it out would have potentially hurt it, so I let it get away into the rock pile.

I continued about my work, and then saw it a little while later over under the pomegranate tree. Then a few minutes later I didn't see it. It's out there somewhere 🤷‍♂️

Given that I don't have to get under the house to do any work anytime soon, I'm not gonna worry about it.

I'll just think of it like inspector Clouseau's manservant Cato, there to keep me on my toes.

#LizardReport #Rattlesnake #snek #HerpReport #NoStepOnSnek

I updated the previous snake post to include the hashtag #snek. How else would anyone find it?

I was recently trying to explain to someone who is not super online what a "snek" is 😆

Looks like snaky snek, the big gopher snake I caught the other day is hanging around. Went out to the back yard and found it hunting along the back wall where some of the salvage lumber is stored.

I really wish I had a mouse to feed it (sorry, mouse!). It would be fun to make friends with a big wild snake. How cool would that be? Go out in the yard and whistle like I do for the lizards and have a big ol' snake crawl up and hang out?

#HerpReport #Snake #GopherSnake #herps #LizardReport #snek