If you get out and about in the California great outdoors you have probably heard the warning sounds that this animal makes using this:
I've heard that rattle a number of times in the past few weeks alongside the hiking trails and it always puts an extra zip in my step. I don't generally worry about the trailside rattlers, they are letting me know that they are there and I respect that and get out of the way as fast as I can and let them get back to whatever they were doing. But this poor critter couldn't get back to its daily routine and I couldn't simply let it stay where it was.
The scary end was just steps away from the gate to the vegetable garden. I think that this was a Northern Pacific Rattlesnake.
What to do? What to do?
Hmm, I thought perhaps the good people at the Wildlife Center at the SPCA could help. Wow, could they ever! Within an hour of calling them a gentleman showed up at my door with a snake tong in hand. He quickly got to work cutting the offending bird netting in a wide arc around the snake while holding the snake's head in the tong. Once the chunk of netting was cut free the still entangled snake was carefully placed in a cardboard critter carrier which was equally carefully closed up and draped with a towel. The snake was then whisked away to the Wildlife Center to be disentangled and rehabilitated so that it can be released (don't know where) to resume its work.
Kudos to the SPCA! I've already given them an extra donation today to help them continue to provide such a valuable service to the local wildlife and community.
Sorry about the quality of the photos, I used my biggest zooms lens to take the photos and they came out a bit fuzzy since I didn't take the time to bother with a tripod.
*GASP!* I would've pooped my pants if I came across that fella in my back yard. Thank goodness poisonous snakes are hard to come by in New England. Is this the first time you've seen them in your garden?
ReplyDeleteYou did right by staying the H*** out of the way! Cecil had to kill a Black Snake last week that got tangled up in our Blueberrie netting..I didn't even want to see it...I'm scared of them ..Period..
ReplyDeleteAck! I use bird netting all the time to keep the animals away. Even the rodents seem to not like it as they can get stuck in it. I've never had a snake - much less a rattler - get stuck in one though. Our snakes tend to be garter snakes and they could zip right through one without a problem.
ReplyDeleteThomas, this is the first rattlesnake that I've seen in this garden. I've seen other snakes such as gopher and king snakes. The gopher snakes have a very similar color and pattern which always gives me an initial scare, they even waggle their tail but they don't have rattles. I rather like having the non-venomous snakes around since they are very good at catching the pesky rodents.
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Gingerbreadshouse7, No fooling around with rattlesnakes, I always give them a wide berth! In general I don't mind snakes, I think they are fascinating and beneficial, but rattlers are scary. They are polite though, they let you know when you get too close and they won't bother you if you don't bother them. My biggest fear for myself is accidentally stepping on one out on the trail. I've come across them sunning themselves in the middle of the trail a number of times - gotta keep your eyes open out there! This morning I was afraid that one of my curious cats might get too close...
Daphne, snaring snakes in the netting is another reason for me to use the row cover instead. I have freed a couple of gopher snakes from the netting before and kept meaning to get rid of the netting so that I don't have to go through that again. The netting is definitley history now...
ReplyDeleteAK! Super scary. But so great that they were so quick about getting the snake in-tangled and freed in a new location.
ReplyDeleteOh my! We get a lot of critters in our yard, raccoons, moles, birds, but a snake! Scary!
ReplyDeleteWhew~~~I have snake phobia (what's that word?), hope I never see one, kudos to the wild life rescue people.
ReplyDeleteHmm, sure am glad that I don't have any of those crawling about in our garden...we use to have quite a few boa constrictor snakes around but it has been a couple years since I have seen one of them and they are not quite the same as a rattler snake, that's for sure.
ReplyDeleteI have been so fearful of this! I take a shovel or hoe or something similar every time we walk down to the garden, go see the chickens/goats, go to our creek. We live in N. CA and we heard that they are in abundance this year!
ReplyDeleteSo glad you are ok!
We used to get rattlers around our central Washington homestead (dry sagebrush country) all the time during the summer months. As you said, they are actually quite good about steering clear and giving you warning and are a valuable controller to the abundant mice population we had. I am so happy for this fellows sake that you were able to recruit help that knew what they were doing.
ReplyDeleteIt just occurred to me that we've lived on our wooded suburban property since 1997 and have never seen any snake, let alone a poisonous one. Wierd. We have rattlers and copperheads in New England and the Blue Hills Reservation is at the end of our street where I know they have plenty of snakes.
ReplyDeleteAnd people say gardening isn't interesting. . .
ReplyDeleteScary! So glad you handled it the way you did.
ReplyDeleteWhat great photos and what a beautiful snake! The wildlife and I thank you for handling it the way you did. We are losing our predators across the United Sates and this guy (or gal) you saved will now be able to go back and do their very important job.
ReplyDeleteThank you!!!!
I'm so glad you were able to get help with this - you wouldn't want to handle it without snake tongs and a lot of knowledge!
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness, that would scare the crud out of me. Living in Western PA I often get jealous of all you garden bloggers with a more friendly climate, but then I remember that it's just as friendly to deadly fauna as it is to the yummy flora!
ReplyDeleteThe snake is afraid of oscillations of the soil. The fan on a wooden stick dry. The generator of the sound waves of low frequency.Hedgehog.
ReplyDeleteGreat job Michelle. Another west coast adventure in gardening.
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