Monday night I went to western Val Verde county (TX) with a friend, did some walking, did some cruising, saw one each of longnose, emory's rat, w. diamondback and DOR coachwhip. Owing to the paucity of snakes seen, we decided to whip over to the NE part of the county. We passed the border patrol checkpoint on Hwy. 277 around 2:30 AM and continued north.
Just past Carruthers Creek we passed a small owl (don't know what type - tufted ears, about 11-12" tall, pretty much all brown) standing on the side of the road. We wanted to see what it was feeding on so we U-turned. The owl was still standing there and, when we pulled up next to it, it continued to stand there. It looked up at us, then down at the shoulder of the road, then at us, then at the shoulder and eventually it flew away. It was then that we saw the 11"-12" rock rattlesnake (C. l. lepidus) that the owl had been contemplating as its next meal. It is a pretty male, pretty much the standard val verde county light gray but with just a bit of pinkish ground color.
We thank the owl for giving us the snake.
Herping the Trans-Pecos
