Cheech’ll Eat Ya’

Cheech, the Western Diamondback Rattlesnake (Crotalus atrox) was on the move, in that familiar, “I killed a bird and it is right around here” mode.

This drama has been played in front of us numerous times, but it always amazes. It only took fifteen minutes to finish the Mourning Dove. Note how the snake braces against it’s own body to allow resistive force for completing swallowing the bird. As soon as consuming this bird was finished, the snake moved right over to another preferred hunting spot, and resumed ‘stealth mode’ under a salvia greggii. There are, consistently, four individual snakes that have been here for over a month. Three ‘old friends’, one is new…