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Just had an incredible night herping (well compared to the past two nights which left me with only a DOR mojave)

Saw a HUGE sonoran gopher, nearly hit it watching the storm clouds which i figured were going to ruin my night for the second night in a row. Thought it was a WDB, but it was a sonoran, had to be about 5' and fat. Was in opaque and very adverse to moving from the center of the road, but i moved it anyway.

5 WDB's 1 had a partial stripe, i'll post pics tomorrow. a sidewinder (finally... boy can those things move fast, my first time seeing one in it's natural environment.) 2 banded geckos, 5-6 toads of some sort, 2 long nose snakes, and a few hundred kangaroo rats.

Saw something dart across the road, very fox like but very dark in color, was way too fast for me to get a spotlight on it.

ALl in all, a great night. Found out today my stay will be extended, so hopefully the luck will continue.

well a link to them.
Link

I think some of your Atrox are Scutes

I think this is the only Atrox in your pics

Hmm, they must all look very similar then, they all had the same tail and head pattern, only some had a formed diamond saddle, and others had ovals. I don't do much wtih american viperidae, so my identification may be a bit rusty.

Other than saddles, what else can I look for as distinguishing factors?

Thanks for the info.

Telling the two apart is not always easy. I am still trying to hone my skills. Generally speaking, the black and white banding on the tail will be different. The Atrox has black and white bands that are roughly equal in width, while the Mojaves black bands will be narrower than the white. The pattern on the Mojave is generally cleaner than the Atrox with the saddles being better defined. The more definitive method is the head scalation. The Mojave will have enlarged scales between the supraoculars and the Atrox has many small scales.
Here is a Mojave, my picture.

Here is a Diamondback, not my picture.

Thanks for the tips. Can you explain the pattern and coloration differences between the green/tan patterend mojave i have at home, and the one I posted a pic of above, and these WDB lookalikes? Is there a desert phase and a mountain phase or something?

Thanks again for your insight.

Well, I don't believe the color variations of the Mojave are defined within geographic areas or habitat. I have found brownish ones and ones with green hues in the same area. Like chris said already, the pic you posted above is a Blacktail Rattlesnake Crotalus molossus.

Mike