Let's be careful out there

I'm cautious around snakes, but not particularly scared of them. Unless he crawls right across my boot, I pretty much always identify a snake, at least as to poisonous/non-poisonous and further than that if I can.

On the other hand, it is a little creepy how little a bush is needed to hide three feet (estimated) of rattler:



Sorry for the shaky and poorly framed video. That guy was nearly three inches across the back of his head and I was pretty distracted checking out all the other weeds in the near vicinity to make sure they didn't harbor another snake. We'd seen another rattler just a couple of hundred yards away, but he was more aggressive or threatened and didn't get his picture taken. Clearly a good evening for reptiles.



Edited to add: there's some interesting information about why & how rattlesnakes rattle in Rigor Vitae's archives.