Today is the first of several days that are forecast to be triple digit days. The National Weather Service calls it an “Excessive Heat Warning” and it is forecast to continue through Monday. Even the Low temperatures are around 80 degrees which doesn’t provide much relief.
The thermostat is set to 82 degrees and the A/C unit keeps it near that temperature which feels REALLY cool when coming in from walking the dogs. We also have the ceiling fans turning in the office and the great room during the day and in the bedroom during the night. The fans circulate the air so the temperature doesn’t have hot and cool spots as could be the case.
The warm weather also activated some of the local reptiles. Yesterday, we found a dead rattlesnake on the road near the neighbor’s wall across from our driveway. I can’t be sure about the species, but it looks like it might be a Western Mojave rattler – either that or a Diamondback. Click on the link to view the image of the dead snake.
There is somewhat of a mystery about that snake and how it met its fate. Damsel and I observed that the Town’s recycle collection truck paused at that exact spot on the road where we later found the critter. Did the driver kill the snake? Did he run it over? I dunno. When I see him next week I plan on asking about what happened.
The other part of the mystery is that later in the day I went out to fetch the carcass and dispose of it but it was gone. Did the turkey buzzards beat me to it? Some other critter, two or four legged? I dunno that either.
Whoa, that’s Wickenburg??? No wonder us rattlers are ncturnal!
Oh, yeah. The snake is a Diamondback (Crotalus atrox)
Thanks for the snake ID Crotalus. Hard to tell from the image and they are so similar.
Indeed they are, but the best ways are the “coontail” which in the Diamondback has black and white bands of equal width, while the Mojave has narrow black bands compared to the white ones, as well as the dusty appearance in the WDB, compared to the cleaner appearance to the MR, but the surest way (if you’re brave enough to get that close) is the two large intraocular scales on the head of the MR compared to the many small intraocular scales on the WDB, (“intra” meaning “between”, referring to between the supraocular scales–the large scales over the eyes,)