stonemon
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2017
Posts: 1,024
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Post by stonemon on Mar 24, 2022 11:15:06 GMT -5
West of the cascades in WA and OR there are no venonous snakes, never learned to be afraid of them. That said, I did take a step back to evaluate before getting out my phone to get a couple pics and shoo it away. I was born and grew up just south of Eugene Or. At the south end of town there is a feature called Spencer Butte. There are occasional encounters with rattle snakes on this butte and south of it where I grew up we had rattlers on our farm. My Quaker family lived on a subsistence farm and we put up loose hay for the livestock. This involved windrowing and shocking the hay into large piles then forking it onto a wagon and putting it in the barn with a hay fork setup rigged to a beam at the peak of the roof. We would often find rattlers under the shocks of hay in the fields as we loaded the hay. they hunted field mice and voles and were always good for a gland full of adrenaline.
We also had problems with them hanging out in the carport area where my dad had all of his rocks and junk stashed. I remember killing snakes in the driveway right by the house. As you travel farther south they become more common...
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quartzilla
Cave Dweller
Member since April 2020
Posts: 1,215
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Post by quartzilla on Mar 24, 2022 21:07:35 GMT -5
I see at least one rattler per season rockhounding. However the majority of them I see crossing the road while I’m driving. Diamondbacks get big around here. I’ve seen a couple nearly 5 ft long and almost as fat as a Gatorade bottle. I’ve learned to pay attention to the tracks too. You can usually tell it’s a rattler by the width of the tracks across a trail. I will usually bushwhack and generally make a lot of noise and kick rocks and branches around so not to be caught unawares.
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NRG
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since February 2018
Posts: 1,630
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Post by NRG on Apr 27, 2022 16:49:20 GMT -5
Wow great trip report! That Ground Snake would have made my day. Never observed one of those in all my desert trips. Very exciting find! When I looked them up I noticed there were few photos and they were described as very reclusive. As far as snakes go I thought it was an attractive critter. I have a life long buddy lives in Mesa and he has them in his backyard! He finds a few dozen a year!
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Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,456
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Post by Sabre52 on Apr 27, 2022 22:30:08 GMT -5
Y0u should report your sighting of the groundsnake with your picture and location info to Inaturalist.org. Very few sightings of that snake and your info with pic would probably be research grade.
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