Hello all. My name is Matthew and I live in NW Florida right now. I am new to this particular forum. The following is my long story, enjoy:
Last Thursday, I left at about 6PM to go on a hike. I went w/my digital still and video cameras and a disposable camera.
I found an area near HWY 285 in NW FL and pulled off on a dirt road. I found this old trailer and some old fallen buildings next to it.
The trailer had an old refrigerator next to it with the door torn off, lying next to it. Being the snake-finder that I am, I saw this as an ideal hideout so I proceeded to flip the door over to look underneath. Note that I used my snakestick to flip it over as I had found black widow spiders underneath just about everything in this area.
I flipped the door over and there were a ton of snakes under there. I was on sensory overload for a split second until I realized they were all the same type and they were all baby rattlesnakes! No sooner than I had made that recognition, I realized there was a big one right around my left ankle, while all these baby ones were swarmed near my right ankle, and some of them striking, albeit not far due to their size.
Upon recognizing that giant rattler kinked on my left ankle, I jumped in a fashion similar to that of the bionic man while holding onto the fridge door so I didn't drop it on those babies that were underneath. I laid it down gently then ran to get my cameras from the car nearby. I had stumbled upon a giant eastern diamondback rattlesnake while/shotly after she was giving birth to her babies it appears! Note the cool little button-rattle on the babies. Because there is only one, you don't hear them rattle.
I don't know if the big one had been half hanging out from under the door when I walked up and I failed to see it, or if me pulling up the door startled it and caused it to move slightly forward; I never heard her rattle until after I jumped away. All I know is that I am very fortunate to have not gotten bitten. Even using my snakestick to reach for things, not putting my hands under things, recognizing all species, and listening carefully for rattles wouldn't have saved me here.
When I had first jumped away from her, she headed under the corner of the trailer and I thought she was gone. Then a few moments later she appeared back there, almost as if to check on her babies perhaps. She stayed just underneath the corner of the trailer about 5 feet from where I was observing and photographing her babies. Her striking distance was easily 3 feet and she was huge. Even though I moved her a bit to get a photo of her, my pics aren't that great because I really had to stay far from her to be safe. I would call her a good 5.5 to 6 ft, maybe larger as I didn't really want to handle her and stretch her out for length. She was easily as thick as my wrist, if not thicker and her head was huge, about 3/4 my clenched fist's size.
I escaped unscathed. Before I left, I meticulously replaced everything as I had found it so that none would fall victim to the many predators around here. I also made sure all the babies were secured back under the fridge door.
What a find and I even got it all on digital video.
TC