Earlier today it was raining. My phone was blowing up with messages from my soccer team. "Is tonight's practice still on?" my teammates texted. They thought our practice was going to get canceled because of the rain, but nope, it was still on. I made the decision to travel to practice earlier than usual. I opened the car door, I arrived at the field and the air was a dry cold. I had only brought a light jacket, which wasn't much help since I wasn't running yet. I took a deep breath and stepped out of the vehicle. My skin quickly grew goosebumps and my teeth began to chatter. I knew standing around wasn't going to warm me up, so I walked around the field observing the beauty of the plants in this weather. The grass glistened and the trees shined. The track dirt was moist and the color of pudding. The closer I got to the greens the more the scent of grass overwhelmed my nostrils. Mother nature wasn't the only one to have a perfume of her own. Petrichor, was rising from the asphalt. After about half an hour the rain started to come down again. I noticed something interesting, usually there's bats out hovering around the lights, but there was none today. Periodically throughout my practice, thunder and lightning struck. They illuminated the sky with blue and purple electric strikes, like nothing I've ever seen before.
Western Diamondback Rattlesnake
This snake is considered a generalist, which means that it isn't too picky about its habitat. These snakes can be found living in deserts, grassy plains, forests, rocky hillsides and areas along the coast. It lives in elevations from below sea level up to 6500 feet. Mice, rats, rabbits, gophers, ground dwelling birds, lizards and other small animals make up the diet of this snake. Diamondbacks also have many predators and not always because the predator wants to eat them. Animals such as deer, antelope, cows and horses regard the diamondback as a threat and they may try to trample or stomp the snake. Eagles, hawks, roadrunners, king-snakes, coyote, bobcats or fox are predators who look at these snakes as a source of food. Western diamondbacks are pit vipers. This means that they have a heat sensing pit (loreal pit) located behind each nostril that can detect differences in temperature, sometimes differences that are only a fraction of a degree apart. The heat given off by an animal is detected by the snake helping it to determine predator from prey.
Their rattles are used as a defensive warning sign, like "stay away".
This snake is good at controlling rodent problems. It also keeps well in captivity; this makes it a good educational resource in zoos and snake shows. Unfortunately, the Western Diamondback Rattlesnake is notorious for its fatal bite, and has instilled a certain fear and paranoia in humans.
Their rattles are used as a defensive warning sign, like "stay away".
This snake is good at controlling rodent problems. It also keeps well in captivity; this makes it a good educational resource in zoos and snake shows. Unfortunately, the Western Diamondback Rattlesnake is notorious for its fatal bite, and has instilled a certain fear and paranoia in humans.