Photos From The Woods

In light of the fact I can't think of anything substantive to write about, here's a couple of photos.

First up, we have an eastern hog nose snake. It's not venomous, but it does like to flare out that hood to make itself appear larger. To dissuade predators, you see. On other occasions they may opt to play dead, but this one was a little too feisty for that.

This, on the other hand, is a timber rattlesnake. They are venomous, and I walked past this one with no more than two feet separating us. It didn't seem to mind, didn't coil up or rattle, though there's a theory rattlers are gradually becoming less prone to rattling. The rattle, like the hog nose's hood, is supposed to be a way to avoid confrontation. If they can warn off an attacker, they don't have to waste venom defending themselves, energy fleeing, or risk being eaten or injured. However, some peoples' automatic response to seeing snakes is to kill them, and rattling is a good way to give away your position. I don't know if there's been any serious research on it, but the idea is humans are creating a selective advantage for rattlesnakes with smaller, weaker rattles, or who are simply not temperamentally inclined to rattle. We're encouraging them not to give us advance warning we're pissing them off.

Anyway, this one stayed stretched out the whole time it was around, so I guess I hadn't worried it too much. Once I got over being startled, it wasn't an issue. I left it alone, but kept an eye on its position. It left me alone, and kept an eye on my position. Eventually it went off to the north, and I went east. Everyone got to go on with their day.