Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello all, just came back from a little trip in Sunny Death Valley California and found this beauty. Could it possibly be a juvenile Panamint speckled rattlesnake? Thanks, JF.

Yep... and a nice one at that. Congrats on a cool find.

Thanks for the ID. Couldn't agree more, it was a really cool find, specially on a first trip to California.

Here's another find that made my day, found this sweet sidewinder at Salt Creek, in the pickleweed around 6pm. Not a great pick, but as with the Panamint, I had no hook.

JF

I saw one do the same thing in a salt bush about 10 years ago in the Searles Valley, just south of the drop into the Panamint Valley. I love that pic!

Thanks for the pic comment,

that behaviour reminded me of an opportunistic baby water snake I found in a tiny puddle of water on a dirt road, stomach filled to bust of the toad tads trapped in the puddle . It was a mile away from that perfect habitat we walking to, and found nothing. I was expecting to find sidewinders "gliding" on the nice smooth desert sand leaving the typical parallel markings on the surface like on National Geographic. Nope, there it was, hanging in the pickleweed, trying to scare us off, "buzzing" it's tiny rattle, most likely sunning to digest all the who knows what it found in the weeds. So no typical sidewinder pic for me lol. I'm still very happy to have seen it, my first. If it wasn't so darn far I'd go back right now for another two weeks, awesome place.

JF