SFR Rattlesnake behavior

[Rob Allen]

I have always seen rattlesnakes right where are supposed to be. On exposed basalt, base of sage brush. They are not sitting in the middle of a trail waiting to bite you. Only one that rattled was in a brush pile at the end of a log. I parted ways and we were both happy.
Spent a few nights on the shop floor (in Oroville) in just a sleeping bag, with a black widow in the window sill. She liked flies and wasps. No interest in me.
Scorpion on a fire pit at Lenice.
With that said, ticks are another matter. One on a butt cheek, another on my right nipple. Tough to find someone to help with either.

That's interesting almost all the ones I have seen were in the middle of trails or roads.
I usually see them and my kneecaps at the same time. I am weary and watchful but not scared.

 

[Rob Allen]

I have no idea what it is, but I stepped out of the water to this, and it must have been warming up because it didn't move. I just assume they all bite.
View attachment 25747

Gorgeous bull snake, best way to tell it's not a rattler is the shape of the head. Rattlers are vipers and have wide almost triangular heads.

 

[FinLuver]

Gorgeous bull snake, best way to tell it's not a rattler is the shape of the head. Rattlers are vipers and have wide almost triangular heads.

I was looking for the pits also.

 

[clarkman]

Harmless rodent vacuum.

That perfectly describes rattlesnakes as well.

 

[Russell]

I encounter quite a few rattlesnakes every year. Mostly at work and while fishing/hunting in the sierras in northern California. They are usually on the road or in the middle of the trail and we find quite a few in the doorways or behind the doors at work.
I have never found one I considered aggressive. Most don't even rattle unless you start messing with them. We usually relocate them if they are somewhere they shouldn't be but my son likes to skin and tan the hides and rattles as well as eating the snake. This is legal with a CA fishing license. Here is on that surprised me sitting right where I was about to set my tent. It was eaten and skinned. They are really creepy how they will continue to move and strike, even without a head, for hours. I had a video of one skinned and dead for 4 hours that was trying to get off the bbq.
I couldn't figure out how to attach this as a mov file. Moved around in the cooler for hours.

 

[Triploidjunkie]

Sleeping in a tent in rattlesnake country this time of the year? Not to mention scorpions, black widows, brown recluse, and ticks. Not even if wild steelhead came readily to the dry fly in easy wading conditions. Some of us are just plain snake wimps!

I try to get to a favorite Canadian stream when ever possible because there are no rattlesnakes. "yet"! There are cougars, black bears, the odd Grizz, and the farmer's beefalos that can get mighty aggressive. I fully realize that these large predators are far more dangerous but don't seem to mind them nearly as much as snakes. Just had a friend's wife get rattlesnake bit while gardening. I think it was a quiet, passive-aggressive snake. Thankful she is OK and recovered.

FYI, we don't have brown recluse in the PNW. We do have hobo spiders, though.