Fortunately for us field herpers, there was no hole or other escape route underneath the large rock, and part of the rattler's coil was still sticking out from underneath. Matt got in position to lift the rock from uphill and behind, while Jim and I got ready with hooks and cameras.

I think it was Jim who said "be careful, there could be two of 'em under there," and so it was. Matt lifted the rock and there were two adult Timbers, one with somewhat dull colors (if compared to yesterday's finds) and the other covered in a thin film of dried mud. Both were detained; Big Muddy was guided into a knapsack for some dark and quiet while we photographed the other.

Two more medium-sized rattlers, each in fine condition with good body weight. Both were saucered, and both of them buzzed their tails at us during pictures. This was a pair, with Big Muddy being the female. The male may have been close to shedding. After shooting pictures of the male, we stuck him back under the rock, and it was the female's turn. She rattled and rattled, her tail in the center of her coils. Soon she was back under the rock with her boyfriend and we walked over the hill further.

We worked our way through a small wooded area and emerged on another open hillside, albeit in transition. Young saplings were growing up everywhere; soon the grassy slope would be a wooded slope, unless fire or the hand of man fixed restored things. Jim and Matt said this spot had been good for Timbers in the past, but now...I poked around in a more open area above, but Matt plunged into the mass of young trees. Little chance of finding one there in all that shade I thought.

"Timber!" Matt called. There was a rattler in there, stretched out next to a large rock, and shaded in by saplings. So much for what I know! Again I tried to angle around for an in situ shot, and again the snake reacted. Matt gently tonged the animal and moved it into the open, downslope.

"That could be the gray rattler!" Jim had been talking about a rattler they had found on earlier trips, a snake with no brown coloring at all. A snake they had found two years in a row. "I think it is!" It looked pretty gray to me; later, when processing the images, a faint tinge of a pale tan color could be seen. Of course, the camera also washed out a lot of the gray coloration, so the images seen here are not quite an accurate representation of the serpent we saw...