Rattlesnake in Jersey

“Today was a good day for seeing wildlife in NJ. First, I saw 2 bear cubs crossing a road near Merrill Creek. One was very small which I thought was unusual for this time of year.

After work, I took a ride up to the Del Water Gap to hike Mt Tammany and the Dunnfield Trail. After taking a few minutes to enjoy the view from Tammany, I headed back down the blue trail where a porcupine scooted across the trail several yards in front of me. Scared the heck out of me because I never saw one in the wild before. It happened too fast for me to get any pictures. :o(

Headed up the Dunnfield Trail and saw 2 hikers taking pictures near a bridge. There was a small black snake slithering around the rocks. Kind of neat but when they said snake, I had some hope it would be a rattler. I've been wanting to see one ever since I started hiking.

Welll, wouldn't you know it...... several minutes later I saw one right on the trail! A gorgeous Eastern Timber Rattlesnake....yes!! He was just relaxing on the side of the trail and never seemed threatened (no rattling), even though I was probably a tad closer than I should have been.

Light was scarce but I had my small digital with me which has a pop-up flash so I took several pictures. I don't think the pictures do this snake justice because he really was a beautiful creature.
4 Timber Rattler Pics

There's more to the story... while stooping down to take the pictures, I hear rustling behind me and a Coopers Hawk does a low fly-by about 20 ft away.

Not bad for a Tuesday.”

“he was prolly after the snake....should poked him wif a stick to make him rattle, lol.


he's perty though, sounds like a cool day. din't know they had snakes up ther in all them big cities....”

“LOL! I thought I was intrusive enough by taking flash pictures. Prodding him with a stick to lure the hawk into the picture.... oh yeah.... ;o)

Ain't no big cities (or cities period) in northwest NJ. Don't tell anyone though. It's a secret.”

“8x”

“pretty good day”

“Great pictures of the snake, Pennsy. I have heard that there are a lot of snake sightings on that trail. Usually the idiots are poking the snakes with sticks, so they are probably more acclimated to humans than usual.

Oh Stratdewd, Hi, I didn't see you there!”

“Wow, cool pics!! And what a great day, very cool you saw all that wildlife. I'm very jealous you saw those bears.. grrrrrrrr.”

“you catch him??”

“Great pictures of the snake. So far this year I didn't see any rattlers yet. I usually see at least one. Last year, I almost stepped right on one hiking the Quehanna trail in Oct. While mountain biking 2 weeks ago, I came across another rider and we had a conversation about rattlers since there's a few dens in the mountains behind my house. He told me his friend came across a den sight where someone had gone there and killed many snakes. Between that type of activity and habitat degradation rattlers are about to be put on the threated list in PA. There's one illegal snake hunter that is reported to be responsible for killing an estimated 40% of the rattlers in NY and NJ. This jerk makes a career of finding snake dens and illegally harvesting them for sale. He spent 4 months in jail and is reportedly back out doing it all over again working PA now. I forget his name, but it was posted on the internet with his picture so people could identify him and call officals if they see him in the woods with a bag and snake stick.”

“Pennsy, one of the few rattlers I’ve ever seen was in the middle of the AT in the section we’ll be hiking this weekend.”

“I saw a rattler very near the top of the Pinnacle two years ago. I didn't realize they had become rare.”

“Why'd I think this thread was about me? lol

It was hard to tell how big he was from your photos. The biggest one I ever saw was not too far from there on the AT near Sunfish Pond. It was about 5' long. We came up to find a group standing way too close to him as he was nearly rattling his tail off and looked ready to strike. What did they think, he was saying hi or something.”

“The only good snakes I have ever seen have been fashioned into someone's boots.

I hate snakes.”

“omigawd, what a snake! We're supposed to have timber rattlers here but I've never seen one. I'd like to, but same as a bear I want it to be on the other side of something - ya know over THERE somewhere...”

“Chili, Im with ya, I HATE SNAKES TO!

ask stikmon!”

“"Bess" won't let me in your pic gallery, so I heven't seen the pics.

How big was the rattler? We have timbers here in GA, too. There's some talk that the timber is a different species than the canebrake. From what I understand, old timers call them timbers until they get full growed, then they're canebrakes. The canebreaks are darn near as big as the diamondbacks (which are the largest snakes [weight wise] in North America).

I love the sound of a rattler rattlin'!”

“Cowards!! Snakes are cool, or as Crazy Mike would say... They ROCK!! ;o)

Adirondack chipmunks.... they're a different story. Viscous monsters!

Size wise.... gee, I would have placed a water bottle next to him for comparison, but he probably would not have liked that. He was pretty darn big though. I'd guess a good 5 feet.”