5-9-18

Trip Details

Location: Southeastern Iowa

Weather: 75 and partly cloudy

Time: 3:30 pm

Herpers: Don Becker and Jim Scharosch

Account by: Jim Scharosch

Photos by: Jim Scharosch

Don and I stopped at a known timber rattlesnake locatin in southeast Iowa today. I hadn't been here in a while but had found timbers here before, Don had been here but had not found one. We worked the area over, checking crevices and hiding places without seeing much but a handful of racers which we didn't bother to try to catch. I was on top of a ridge, Don was below. He called out "Timber", but I didn't hear him. A few seconds later I heard a timber buzzing it's rattle, not realizing it was the timber Don was standing next to. We eventually got that all sorted out, and as I worked my way down to where Don was, he spotted a second larger timber on the crawl nearby.

This is the first Timber Rattlesnake (Crotalus horridus) that Don found.

It was just under three feet long.

This is the second timber. It was quite a bit larger than the first, approximately four feet long, and appeared that it might be a gravid female.

She wasn't too happy to see us and she coiled up and buzzed her rattle the entire time we were in view.

 

We left them and headed out a ways from the den area. Don spotted this timber crawling along with it's head held up high.

This was a larger snake as well, but not as big as the previous one.

Finally on the way back to the car I spotted a fourth timber, also out on the crawl.

This one was about the size of the first one Don found.

A four timber day is a good day. I had never seen more than two at this site so Don and I were both pretty happy with our side trip.