Rattlesnake!

Sometimes you are happy just to get a documentation photo, and don't care too much about the artistic merits. There was no way I was going to get eye-level with this guy! At 6 feet away I was close enough already.

Western Rattlesnake. Dixon Lake, Escondido, California. June 29, 2018.

As I was walking around the fishing trail at Dixon Lake I noted a man who was coming toward me, but had stopped. The snake was coiled and facing him, rattling away! This snake was at least 4 feet long, perhaps a bit more. They get to 5 feet long. I am always surprised by how stout they are throughout their length.

I don't see rattlesnakes very often. As a child, growing up in Oregon, I was always turning over rocks and logs looking for snakes and lizards and salamanders. Poisonous snakes were very unlikely in northwestern Oregon. Not so in southern California. I have outgrown the urge to seek for critters under rocks and logs now. I would like to see sidewinder in the desert though.

San Diego Gopher Snake

Monday I was repairing an irrigation line on the hillside. As I was making my way down the steep slope my path was blocked by this large brown-patterned snake.

San Diego Gopher Snake

I have no fear of snakes. But it gave me a bit of a start anyway--shaking me from whatever my thoughts were at the moment (probably, "Don't slip and tumble down the hill").

"Ooh, cool. A snake!" Brown and black with no red or yellow--not a Garter Snake. Not rings of black and white, so not a California King Snake. Okay, skinny tail and blunt head. No worries. This is not a Rattle Snake. This must be the common and widespread Gopher Snake (various subspecies also known as Pine Snake and Bull Snake). It is, in fact, the San Diego Gopher Snake.

The San Diego Gopher Snake (Pituophis melanoleucus annectens) is 31-51 inches long as an adult, the female longer. I estimate that the snake I saw was about 48 inches, so likely a female.

It wasn't moving as fast as I like, so I reached out and picked up the tail a bit to see if it would scoot off my path. Nope; it coiled up in a defensive fashion.

I found another way down the hill.