I’m starting off with a photo I shared last week because this week’s story is related in some ways. I’d mentioned that I didn’t feel I could get a better photo by pulling the grass up around this Sandia hairstreak, because doing so might have scared it away. I also identified these tiny white flowers as hidden flowers, a form of Cryptantha.1
Last Tuesday, as I was striding along a trail in the Sandia foothills, acting as if I owned the place, I all of a sudden heard a rattle and a simultaneous hiss. It was early on a cool morning and although I was still pretty groggy, those sounds definitely got my attention. I was probably no more than two feet from a diamondback, who was curled up only about four inches off the trail. I was way too close to it and would never have seen it but for its rattle, for which I was grateful.2
I backtracked faster than a superhero, then (as usual) scoped out a safe place from which I might take a few photos.3 The small white flowers around the snake’s tail are the same hidden flowers (Cryptantha) the Sandia hairstreak butterfly was browsing on.
This snake had one of the most beautiful sets of rattles I’ve ever seen. The large white flower in the lower left (above) is evening primrose, still open because it was so early in the morning. The tiny dot of purple is probably some kind of vetch.
Here’s another repeat image, this one from a post in March. It’s a photo of rattlesnake grass from along the northern California coast. If you were wondering how it got its name, I’m guessing you now have a pretty good idea.
The calculations involved in not removing the dried grass from around this particular subject were, as you might imagine, quite different from those with the butterfly. I wanted to stay alive more than I wanted a good photo.
Rattlesnakes have triangle-shaped heads, which may not be completely obvious from the photo above, but you can tell that its head is wider than its body. When you see a snake whose head looks like this, you can be quite sure it’s poisonous. By the way, the pink flowers and buds above the snake are also evening primroses, only these are closed and closing.
The photo above shows both open and closed evening primroses as well, along with more hidden flowers and a bit of vetch.
While I was taking photos, I noticed what I thought was a stinkbug brazenly running up and over the snake’s back from the side of my eye. When I got home I realized it had made its way into one of my shots as well, and that it wasn’t a stinkbug after all, but some other kind of beetle.
Last, a photo of almost the entire snake.4 I’m guessing it was two or three feet long.
I feel more confident this week in identifying it as Cryptantha minima.
In my experience, running into a rattlesnake in April means there will be more than usual during the summer.
That day happened to be the first time in a long time that I’d left my camera card in the card reader at home. So I couldn’t take any shots until I’d 1) figured out there was no card in the camera; 2) gotten a new card out; 3) gotten it into the camera; and 4) formatted it. It was such a cool morning, though, that my snake friend didn’t get very far while I was doing all of it. Still, a great example of why photographers should always ensure their camera’s ready to roll before they need it.
This was not even my closest call with a rattlesnake. I almost stepped right over one two years ago.
Amazing! I’m impressed with your fearlessness & tenacity in getting these shots of the snake, never seen rattlers like that. Have only had one rattlesnake encounter in the foothills & it was in the same area, other side of the main trail.
I am quite awestruck that you continue to hike and photograph where the snakes live, I know they were there first... and we (you) encroach on their territory and are willing to take the risk to get the wonderful aspects of nature you find to photograph (including the snakes!)