Hiking with rattlesnakes

[audreyh1]

I used to encounter them frequently when fishing at the in-laws house in Menard County. Their range extends to west central TX, covering much of the state.

Right, I already knew from the range map that they were there, just never saw one.

We have the Snakes of Texas guidebook. That’s an excellent resource. TX has a huge number of species of snakes, and most are limited to part of the state.

Note how Tex-Mex border area has no water moccasins. Neither do we have copperheads. We have plenty of rattlers though and poisonous cane toads.

 

[harley]

Note how Tex-Mex border area has no water moccasins. Neither do we have copperheads.

Maybe the Border Patrol folks are better shots than the Secret Service.

 

[travelover]

Maybe the Border Patrol folks are better shots than the Secret Service.

 

[LOL!]

Did a 10-mile hike yesterday in the nearby National Forest. Reading this thread made many of the sticks along the path look like a snake. I must've seen about 500 snakes, uh, sticks that looked just like snakes.

In the end, the actual snake count was one (1): An excellent specimen of a ribbon snake probably within a few hours of molting since it was so brilliantly green-lined.

He swam toward me with his mouth open raised in the air, ...

You would've noticed the totally brilliant white mouth of a cottonmouth (see my photo posted upthread) and told us about that if it had been a cottonmouth. The pattern shown in your photo is classic water snake and so is the behavior.

 

[JoeWras]

You would've noticed the totally brilliant white mouth of a cottonmouth (see my photo posted upthread) and told us about that if it had been a cottonmouth. The pattern shown in your photo is classic water snake and so is the behavior.

I missed your pictures earlier because I wasn't logged on or something.

Wow! LOL! Those are some pretty good specimen pictures you took. Holy cow.