Timbers Two Weeks in a Row

[salmonoid]

Rattler encounters:

Three at my parents' cabin. It is on the side of Bald Eagle Mountain. Talus slope all around, with flat sites scratched out of the talus for the cabins. None were in the sun.

Two in Sullivan County, at about 1500 feet elevation. One was under a rock and the other slithered up the side of a ledge (rock and also covered with leaves and dirt) and barreled away through the tall grass.

Three in Potter County - one right beside a stream, under a rock, a second right above a stream, on a bank covered in ferns about two feet off the water, the third both below and then coiled above a trail, under a fern, as he crossed uphill as I stepped over him.

A few I've seen in Lycoming County were up on top of a plateau.

I have seen one or two dead on highways, but overall, my experience has either been encountering them streamside, on the tops of plateaus, or spread out over a talus slope.

Diamondbacks I have encountered have almost always been tucked underneath sage brush or other desert type bushes.

 

[meck1776]

Saw one last year on a back pack trip, don't want to see anymore. I've also run a couple over with my bike on the D&L rail trail. Now that's a thrill. :-o

 

[outsider]

Most lay people categorize rattlesnake color as yellow phase or black phase. A fried of mine showed me pictures of 11 different rattlesnakes laying along the Pine Creek rail trail 2 years ago while biking there in June. He also showed me pictures of rattlesnakes laying along the Appalachian trail in northern Berks County.

We see more rattlesnakes than ever and I have a theory that I posed to an official of the game commission (yes I know they are protected under Fish Commission law). He concurred that my theory may be correct, and it goes like this:

The deer population in the "big woods" of PA has been greatly reduced, including the Blue Mountains of Berks County. Deer in the big woods were like vacuum cleaners, eating themselves out of house and home. I really noticed their absence during the 90's. Lots of acorns and other nuts, but much fewer deer.

So, that leaves the other animals that feed on acorns, etc.: bears, turkeys, and rodents for example. And yes the bear and turkey populations have increased. And I now see more rodents (squirrels, chipmunks, mice) than I ever saw before around my cabin. So what is a primary predator of rodents? Rattlesnakes. Just a theory.

 

[Swattie87]

Ended up being a busy week...here's the pic of the "Penns Creek Rattler." Its tail is still in the water.