88 tomorrow. Looking forward to it. Come on down.
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Is that a King snake? Or an eastern rattlesnake?
Let’s see his head 
It is an Eastern Diamondback.
What’s the current “dope” on those? I remember reading, long ways back (maybe late 70’s), the “scientific” spec that they could reach lengths of 12, later pared-down to 10-foot lengths. I guess that meant an actual field caught or corpse collected specimen had reached that length. Later, I thought I’d read they might reach lengths of 8 to 9 feet. I think I’ve also read somewhere where the Eastern Diamondback is our heaviest native species. I guess, that is, till Burma becomes a town in lower Florida with a high morbidity rate amongst retirees seeking errant golf balls in high rough.
My brother took the photo with his cell from as close as he dared.The head was too far away.
Their numbers are low. My son-in law had a project going on Fort Seward GA several years ago. I remember he said they had trouble even finding those they did.
My personnel experience of them began with a 7-foot snakeskin over the hunting cabin door in the southern part of Ocala National Forest. I have walked up on numerous ones in the forest back in those years and they never acted aggressive toward me. Also, would see them crossing dirt roads which meant that they were usually killed by those that saw them. They like Gopher Tortoise (endangered) borrows, as do the less common Indigo snakes (threatened) which will eat them. All three species were fairly common when I was growing up but are in danger of being lost today.
My dad’s mother had a young sister that was bit by one walking on the path to her house coming home from school back around 1900. She was walking behind two of her older sisters which walked by it first. She was knocked down but thought a wasp had stung her. They said the first two girls to pass it probably alarmed it and the third child was then struck. She died that same day. However, I have read where in many cases when they strike, they do so as a warning and don’t always release venom.
Here is a link about them being a species of concern.
An update on our Eastern Diamond-backed Rattlesnake Research (oriannesociety.org)
Here is a young one in the dunes at Daytona Beach. Some of the highest numbers can be found on barrier islands.
Gopher Tortoise an endangered species.
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Thanks for the education. After I wrote you, I Wiki-freshed my dimming cranium. The part about over one hundred toxins present in their venom made me feel a bit sad for those marsh rats and cottontails that fall to their bite. 7.4 feet, 34 lbs., that’s big enuff to say, “Whoa! Exit, stage left evennn!”
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Sad story. Dangerous country for children in those days.
Do I hear Henry Mancini playing in the background?
The chicks will be making a FEED ME racket soon if they aren’t already.
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We just found this wild camping spot online at a lake we like in Austria so maybe we will check it out this weekend.
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Dang!
??? Ya got me there, Ms. Alice, unless somewhere down a Moon River you’ve got Inspector Clouseau tripping over a rattlesnake and into “A light pink anthropomorphic puma”?
I tell ya, after so many years of canoeing, and those many different waters where I and the unintended, Clouseauesque moments of “wet exit” have merged, my stream of conscious is so muddled and “snaggled” that I’m now following along string’s fenceline, humming to myself (and you, should you so care) one of my favorite songs from out of the 80’s:
Dangerous country, indeed.
Austria is about 40% the area of Idaho, but Austria’s population is much higher. Yet the hiking and mountain biking in Austria can be delightful and relatively uncrowded. Unlike Idaho, it is easy (in most cases) for hikers to traverse private property, so reaching ‘wild’ areas is straightforward. Mountain bikers in Austria are a bit more restricted in some areas.
Looking west along the Pend Oreille River, which ultimately flows into the Columbia River. Pend Oreille Lake is currently still about 8’ below its summer level which it normally reaches about mid June. The lake level also dictates the river level.
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A lot of spots are word of mouth and today we heard of this place between Switzerland and Italy where the farmer 
brings you bread
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I love being at the stern, out of sight of your fellows. You need just rest, grunt occasionally, and shout encouragement to those in front
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