5 Timber Rattlenakes, Crotalus horridus, found under the same tin
I wish I could share a picture of my face and a recording of the words coming out of my mouth when Phil Peak and I lifted up a piece of our artificial cover and bore witness to the sight in this photograph! Moments before we had found 1 Timber Rattlesnake beneath a sheet of metal and were feeling really happy about that, so you can imagine how cool it was to find 5 more under a single piece just a short distance away. This particular piece of cover was set out between 2 and 3 years ago. We have had some warm weather this spring, but the 5-7 days leading up to the day we made this flip were unseasonably cool with a lot of rain. On the day we arrived conditions had changed and the sun had finally broken through the clouds. These 5 snakes had emerged weeks earlier but after many days of cold temperatures they all congregated at a place where they knew the heat would arrive once the weather broke.

Phil and I were at the right place at the right time.

Several hours later the blazing sun scorched this same piece of metal and caused it to reach temperatures well over 100 degrees and the snake most certainly found a new place to hide…but only after we were able to capture the moment with our cameras! Spring is turning to summer in our area and it appears that mild days are behind us and the real heat of summer lies ahead. We will continue to check our materials, but the real climax of flipping season is probably over for the year. That is kind of depressing, but at least it was good while it lasted and we had the opportunity to be at the right place at the right time after making some effort to set our table.

Eastern Hognose Snake Heterodon platirhinos
This large Eastern Hognose Snake is the first Phil Peak and I ever recorded from Bell County, Kentucky. Phil spotted this snake out basking among a pile of rocks on top of a strip mine surrounded by secondary growth forest. Our group nearly decided not to hunt the area where this snake was located, but Phil liked the looks of it and demanded that we stop and poke around, so it was fitting that he found the nice big Hognose.

While there is no doubt that species diversity is impacted in a negative way by the process of strip mining, the mined areas recover quickly and provide a kind of artificial oasis for many large game species like Bear, Elk, Timber Rattlesnakes, Copperheads, and Hognose Snakes. After many years of experience I can say that I would rather search on strip mines than natural areas where no disturbance has taken place. This snake was a very welcome find on an otherwise slow day and to top it off the snake was just as calm as could be and never played dead. Every year I see people posting pictures and videos of their Hognose Snakes playing dead. That was fun for me once, and since then I prefer to get pictures of the snake BEFORE it goes into the routine.