This is the gravid female Canebrake Rattler we saved.
I long ago stopped trying to figure out what makes canebrake rattlers, Crotalus horridus atricaudatus, do what they do. It's a whole lot easier when you realize that they just do what they want to do whenever they want to do it.

This heavily gravid female was coiled on a busy paved road in August in the full sunshine. Road surface temp was ~120F. We moved her because there were a rancher and his wife parked on the other side of the road, pistol drawn, waiting to shoot the snake when she moved. While we were easing the snake into a bucket I asked the rancher why he had waited. Said he didn't want to put a hole in the tarmac. As good a reason as any other I guess.

He asked what plans we had for the snake.

When I told him we would find a nearby quiet place and release her, the rancher looked at his wife in disbelief, shook his head, and drove off.

We did exactly as I had said we'd do and wished the snake a long life as she slowly left the confines of the pail.

And yes, I have called the snake a canebrake and not a timber. I’ve even used its old trinomial nomenclature. I have done do because I feel this remains correct. But please, call the snake anything you wish to. It simply doesn’t care.

This is a hatchling Northern Rainbow Snake
Rainbow Snakes, Farancia erytrogramma ssp (2 subspecies) were once relatively common but are now considered uncommon to very rare. The southernmost subspecies, the South Florida rainbow snake, F. e. seminola, known only from 3 examples and not seen for the last several decades, has now been declared extinct. Believers continue to hope this is not true and searches continue. The northern rainbow snake, F. e. erytrogramma, adult at 4 to 5 feet in length and nonvenomous (it can rarely be induced to bite!), once ranged south along the coastal plain from the southern tip of MD to central FL, and westward to eastern LA. It has not been seen over much of this range for a very long time. In fact, deservedly or not, one found recently (Feb 2020) in central FL was given headline publicity. It is quite likely that river damming and the corresponding marked reduction in the catadromous American eel, the primary prey item of the rainbow snake, is the main cause of the greatly lessened numbers of the rainbow snake.

Both subspecies are shown herewith

The South Florida rainbow snake, much the darker of the two, is a preserved specimen at the Florida Museum of Natural History.