I found this Tiger Rattlesnake on a survey of a county park on a ridiculously hot night. Not many snakes were out, but I did manage to find several of these, as well as a few other odds and ends. The geology of the mountain is interesting and changes quite a bit from one tip of the range to the other. In the North end, this species is much more commonly encountered than the Speckled Rattlesnakes I was looking for.
I found this Southwestern Speckled Rattlesnake out on the surface on a hot day.
The camouflage of this animal doesn’t appear to be working from narrow perspective of the photo, but in greater context, this snake is very difficult to spot. Adjacent hillsides and iron-rich boulders break apart, and this is one of countless reddish blotches against the lighter matrix below. While the snake itself may stand out like a sore thumb, the brain tends to throw it away as noise.
A good read about how our minds tend to do this, even with incredibly important or obvious things:
Gibson, B. S., & Jiang, Y. (1998). Surprise! An unexpected color singleton does not capture attention in visual search. Psychological Science, 9(3), 176–182. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9280.00034
This Blacktailed Rattlesnake is typical of those you’ll see in the Phoenix area. They’re often a yellow/gold or greenish color, with quite a bit of variation in how much pattern is visible. The black tail may also show some faint grey bands, leading to some confusion as people look for a completely black tail to identify them. They are typically misidentified as a Mojave rattlesnake, due to the color and faint tail bands. This one was found on a night hike in a remote canyon, where it was one of several rattlesnakes active that particular evening.
Up close with a Sonoran Lyresnake (Trimorphodon lambda) from Maricopa County, Arizona. These shy snakes are almost entirely nocturnal, which you’d likely be able to figure out from just those big bug-eyes. They’re mildly venomous, rear-fanged snakes, but generally harmless to humans and pets.
I saw this Tiger Rattlesnake moving along a rocky drainage on a hot summer morning. The wash was full of deep caves and access to cooler temperatures that it needed to survive the hottest time of year. She was also gravid, and in time she gave birth in these same caves.
This Southwestern Speckled Rattlesnake, at the time this photo was taken, was very gravid (pregnant). She was in a cool area with higher ambient moisture, which is a special place during the heat of the summer in Arizona. She’s still there this year, though at the time I saw her, she was not notably gravid.
A Western Diamondback Rattlesnake caught after breaking coil in a hurry. Sometimes, a situation like this is the result of a strike at passing prey. Afterward, if they succeeded in connecting, they’ll wait a few moments and then go off in search of the prey as it succumbs to the venom elsewhere. Or, if it missed … back to the coil to try again.
A Tiger Rattlesnake from the Phoenix area. The blue-grey base color fading to pink with dark grey bands is a standard look in the area. These snakes are common in popular hiking areas, yet most people who frequent them for a lifetime will never see one because of their cryptic nature.
A Southwestern Speckled Rattlesnake found in ambush at sunup on a hot day in Arizona. Nearby, a cave with several more has been used as an aestivation site to avoid death in the summer months.
This photograph was taken in 2014. In recent years, the site has been abandoned, most likely due to increased human activity, based on evidence and observation of similar sites in the region.
A young Sonoran Sidewinder (Crotalus cerastes cercobombus) with a nice, clean pattern near Phoenix last year. These small rattlesnakes are very common in the right habitat, but rarely seen by hikers because of the nature of that same habitat.
