Next on our list was Sully, a large male who had been hanging around a ridge top for a number of weeks.  We tracked him to an area under the canopy of a large tree, and again Greg let me try to spot the snake.  It wasn't very difficult to do - Sully's pale yellow colors glowed among the sun-dappled leaf litter.

Over four feet long, Sully was the largest snake in the study group, and easily the most beautiful Timber I had ever seen, either in person or in pictures.  As I circled him at a safe distance and took pictures, he never moved, flicking his tongue once for a taste of me.  He was the perfect picture of coiled calm.  I wondered if he was digesting a meal, and if so, what it was; big rattlers like Sully would have no trouble with squirrels or small rabbits.

We left Sully to his place in the sun, and went looking for Chica.  The smallest snake in the study group, Chica was currently residing on a steep hillside cut with several ravines.  Guided by the beeps from the tracking receiver, we moved closer and closer to her location, or so we thought - the beeps abruptly became faint.  There was no snake on the little hogback we were standing on.  "I think we're getting a bounce off these ravines," Greg said.  "Let's backtrack a bit and try again."  We moved back a bit and over to one side, and picked up the beep again.

We got 'bounce' several more times as we traversed the area from several directions, but finally, a growing beep turned into thud, and we narrowed Chica's location down to a flat spot on the lip of a ravine, which we had already walked through once.  "There she is!" said Greg, pointing to a small log amidst leaf litter and thornbush.  Her head suddenly materialized in my vision, up against the side of the log.  "I walked right by her!" I exclaimed.

Chica was in the classic hunting position for Timbers, coiled next to the log with her head resting on the side.  Her neck and the upper portion of her body were in an S-curve, allowing her to reach out and bite any prey item that might cross over or travel down the log.  We moved in a little closer so Greg could take her body temperature with an infrared thermometer, and Chica slowly pulled her head back a few inches.  Very different from Sully in appearance, she was still quite beautiful with dark chevrons and a well-defined vertebral stripe.