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.