From the Harmonious to the Hair-raising

[Arlen]

Fishing central Oregon's famed Deschutes River during the giant stonefly hatch has its charms, but also its hazards.

[Rainer SLP]

Great images and contrasts

 

[NancyP]

So, what snake is that? Triangular head, but apparently round pupils and no obvious pits?

[degrub]

Gopher most likely. Stripe across the head.
Could be dead wrong though...

[Arlen]

Degrub, I like your play on words--it's quite possible that if one is wrong in this situation, they could turn out to be dead wrong. 

However, in this case you are correct. A half hour before encountering this fellow, I had run into a bona fide rattler, of which there are many in this area. Then later, glancing down towards my feet, I spotted a critter with the same pattern coiling up and striking in my direction. I promise you that in this situation, the primitive area of your brain reacts much faster than your analytical process, and the hair on the back of your neck will stand up. After recovering from that shock (the strike was out of range, so no harm done), closer examination led me to conclude that it was not a rattler.

However, this snake, a Great Basin Gopher Snake, may be even more interesting than a rattler. Not only does it mimic the body pattern of the local rattlesnakes, it also flattens its head to resemble the diagnostic triangular shape of the pit vipers. And if you look closely, some scales within the black stripe on each side of its head resemble the vertical-slit pupils and position of a rattlesnake's eyes. Finally, according to my research, it is very common for it to immediately coil up and strike, as it did when I encountered it, to convince you that it really is a bad-ass snake that you should not mess with. And as I can attest, it is pretty convincing.

[Colorado David]

Several years ago I worked on a series of short informational videos for Bass Pro Shops.  One was about identifying venomous snakes.  The subject matter expert was a USF&W guy.  He described the eyes and the pits (from which they get the name pit viper) and the whole time I was thinking, if I'm close enough to discern that detail, I'm too close.  I shot a video at a wetland area in Oklahoma that had been an environmental restoration.  I got out of my truck and just about stepped right on a venomous snake.  Fortunately we both went in opposite directions.  After that experience I bought a pair of Gokey snake-proof boots.

[degrub]

Glad you got out of that tight spot ok.
I learned fear when a water moc (aka cottonmouth ) dropped in the john boat while i was fishing along the shore one morning....my feet got wet, but not too much....

[NancyP]

He makes a darn good mimic of a rattlesnake, but his round pupils don't fit - the scales behind his genuine eyes do look a little slit-eyed.
The flattening bit I have seen in another harmless snake (harmless unless you are a toad), the eastern hognose - it looks like a little cobra. If you actually pick it up, it plays dead. Here's the hognose trying to impress me (low res, because that's what I have on this computer):

[pcgpcg]

In Oregon there are rattlesnakes (and scorpions) east of the Cascades, but (apparently, so far) not west of them. Many people think there are none in the Columbia Gorge, but as soon as you get east of that magic line drawn north/south through the Cascades, they are there. This Western Rattlesnake was in the Columbia Gorge on Dog Mountain, across the river from Mt. Defiance and Starvation Creek Falls. He rattled, but never struck.

For anyone accustomed to watching for rattlesnakes, the first sight of a gopher snake or bull snake will jump-start your heart every bit as effectively as the real thing. That pattern just triggers something in the brain that the sight of garter snakes (very common everywhere in Oregon) doesn't do.

[Zeon]

A Gopher snake will also wiggle it's tail like a rattler to simulate their warning. No sound though of course.

[Arlen]

Nancy, very interesting shot of the hognose. I guess if you can't be a poisonous snake, the next best thing is to imitate one. Though I'm not sure why an American snake would have benefited evolutionarily by imitating a cobra!

Paul, that rattler just looks evil. And along the lines of the reactions you described, no doubt instilled in us by long-ago encounters as the very definition of evil.
As an aside, there are some places west of the Cascades in Oregon that do have rattlesnakes. I've read that they were once relatively abundant in the southern Willamette valley, but were mostly killed off by early settlers. There are still some up in the rocky hills. Recent news stories showed pictures of several rattlers encountered on Spencer Butte right here in the Eugene city limits.

[NancyP]

I think that the hognose is merely trying to look larger from above. If the first 15 cm of this smallish snake is the only part visible above the leaf litter, who is to know that the snake is small diameter - unless someone gets absolutely on ground level and sees a flattened snake profile.

[pcgpcg]

... there are some places west of the Cascades in Oregon that do have rattlesnakes... There are still some up in the rocky hills. Recent news stories showed pictures of several rattlers encountered on Spencer Butte right here in the Eugene city limits.

I was having a great day until now.   I was just down there tromping through the woods without a care in the world...

[Colorado David]

. . . a poisonous snake, . . .

Venomous.

[Arlen]

Venomous.

Thank you, sir. A slip in my wording stands corrected.