A Visit from an Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake

Something was wrong.

I had let our little blind cocker spaniel out to bask in the driveway, but instead of relaxing she was slowly walking the perimeter of my parked car, sniffing and snuffling intently.

I watched her for a minute or two, then, knowing this was not normal behavior for her, decided to investigate. As I neared the car I could hear a soft buzzing that grew louder as I approached. I'd heard the sound often enough over the years to recognize it as the buzzing of a rattlesnake.

I called the dog to me, put her in the house, grabbed a snake hook and bucket from the closet, knelt to determine the actual position of the snake (an Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake, Crotalus adamanteus) and gently hooked it into the open.

A gravid, 3.5-foot long female, she coiled again, continued her lazy buzzing and showed no display of hostility even when coaxed into the bucket lying next to her.

This was a lucky snake. She had somehow crossed the busy thoroughfare of four lanes that separated our yard from Paynes Prairie, chosen a yard where she was welcomed, not reviled, in which to rest, and would now be taken a little deeper into the Prairie and released.

She was the third live rattler to come visiting over the years and would have been the sixth if the three found dead on the separating roadway had made the journey safely.

More photos under the jump...

Author, photographer, and columnist Richard Bartlett is one of the most prolific writers on herpetological subjects in the 20th century. With hundreds of books and articles to their credit, Richard and his wife Pat have spent over four decades documenting reptiles both in the field and in captivity. For a list of their current titles, please visit their page in our bookstore.