Saturday, June 11, 2016

Rattle and Hum

We have lived in our house for over a dozen years and in that time have had all manner of wildlife remind us that we are simply squatters.  We have the daily rabbits, ground squirrels, hawks, coyotes...we commonly see and her packrats, owls, bats, and tarantulas...and occasionally even a bobcat.  Just this week a scorpion came indoors and stung my niece on the toe in the middle of the night.  In the summer months we sometimes see a large gopher snake around the front of our property and a medium sized king snake perusing the backyard.  We have never had a rattle snake in our space...until today.



While enjoying an early morning cup of coffee and cinnamon roll at the local coffee house with my lovely wife, I received a text message from my son that he had walked into the backyard and as he looked at our dog Cosmo he immediately noticed a large snake just ahead of the dog.  Fortunately, the dog had not seen the snake and he was able to get the dog inside.  Upon closer inspection (not that close) he saw it was a diamondback rattlesnake and not one of our known, local denizens.





Click the pictures to enlarge and enjoy him/her from the safety of your monitor.