In the Headlights

I believe its going to be hard to beat the amazing experience I had the evening of June 5, 2019. The goal of the trip was easy, go up the Grande Ronde River for 16 miles to Troy, a tiny community hidden in a deep and isolated canyon in northeastern Oregon. We would've never expected to find what we did that evening.

We were driving from Lewiston to Enterprise on WA-129 and OR-3. However, we heard from locals that Bighorn Sheep were spotted on the Grande Ronde River heading to Troy. We knew we were driving through in the evening, the best time to spot the elusive climber since they go to the water sources to drink before sunset. But I'll tell you right now, we did not see any sheep. Maybe next time.

Anyway, other things we saw up there was were Steller's Jays, Bald Eagles (including a nest!), Common Nighthawks, a single Common Poorwill and Spotted Sandpipers. That was just the animals I couldn't get shots of. One of the coolest things on the trip was, we rounded the corner and saw a mother Mule Deer with two recently birthed fawns by her side. While momma and one fawn charged up the hill, the second fawn just dropped to the ground and pretended to camouflage.

It was around eight o'clock by the time we got to Troy. What we didn't know at the time was that every other road out of Troy was impassible for our little car in daylight. So you can guess what we did. We turned back and didn't expected to see much. We were wrong.

While I was looking out over the river, finding any nocturnal creatures coming out, my dad swerved and slammed on the brakes exclaiming, "I think that was a snake!" We turned around and shone the headlights over exactly what my dad saw, the infamous Northern Pacific Rattlesnake. The only other time I had seen a rattlesnake was when I was on a Boy Scout High Adventure near Vantage, Washington along the Columbia River. However it was dead as some of my 'friends' harassed and killed it because "It was going to bite someone." Till that day, I had never seen a live rattlesnake. That moment of seeing that beautiful diamond pattern and the rattle on the tail was very special to me.

After taking pics, we anxiously prodded the snake off the road in case another car came up. We started driving slower after that and we had our eyes glued to the road. Soon, we saw another rattlesnake. Two in one day! The next snake was my favorite reptile of all-time, the Great Basin Gopher Snake. Not long after the gopher snake, we found another rattlesnake. Then another... and another... and another. After the sixth rattlesnake, a car passed us and we started addressing our concerns.

The next snake was dead hatchling Gopher Snake, right on the same corner we found the Mule Deer fawn. It wasn't much later when we saw another gopher snake run over. The next one was alive and we were realized to get it off the road. Then we found another rattlesnake. But the last rattlesnake was also ran over, presumable by the car that passed us earlier. The poor snake's head was smashed and I hope that however killed it has its fangs in his flat tire.

The last two snakes of the night were two young Gopher Snakes which we got off the road easily. It became quite some time before we had seen a snake and we were certain the reptile hunting was done for the night. Then a toad crossed the road. It was first Western Toad I have seen since moving from Montana over four years ago. After getting the little hopper off the road, we found another toad crossing the road. The last thing we saw that night was a skunk up on OR-3 five miles up the canyon.

As I said before, that evening was hard to beat. I saw my first live rattlesnake and it was amazing. The thing was, I am now starting to grow a very fond fascination of rattlesnakes. It was just an awesome time and I'm glad we followed a rumor about Bighorn Sheep.

Posted on 07 June, 2019 15:14 by birdwhisperer birdwhisperer

Observations

Photos / Sounds

What

Northern Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus ssp. washingtoniensis)

Observer

birdwhisperer

Date

June 5, 2019 09:19 PM MDT

Photos / Sounds

What

Mule Deer (Odocoileus hemionus)

Observer

birdwhisperer

Date

June 5, 2019 09:20 PM MDT

Photos / Sounds

What

Northern Pacific Rattlesnake (Crotalus oreganus ssp. oreganus)

Observer

birdwhisperer

Date

June 2019

Place

Oregon, US (Google, OSM)

Photos / Sounds

What

Northern Pacific Rattlesnake (Crotalus oreganus ssp. oreganus)

Observer

birdwhisperer

Date

June 2019

Place

Oregon, US (Google, OSM)

Photos / Sounds

What

Great Basin Gopher Snake (Pituophis catenifer ssp. deserticola)

Observer

birdwhisperer

Date

June 5, 2019 10:00 PM MDT

Photos / Sounds

What

Northern Pacific Rattlesnake (Crotalus oreganus ssp. oreganus)

Observer

birdwhisperer

Date

June 2019

Place

Oregon, US (Google, OSM)

Photos / Sounds

What

Northern Pacific Rattlesnake (Crotalus oreganus ssp. oreganus)

Observer

birdwhisperer

Date

June 2019

Place

Oregon, US (Google, OSM)

Photos / Sounds

What

Northern Pacific Rattlesnake (Crotalus oreganus ssp. oreganus)

Observer

birdwhisperer

Date

June 5, 2019 10:11 PM MDT

Photos / Sounds

What

Northern Pacific Rattlesnake (Crotalus oreganus ssp. oreganus)

Observer

birdwhisperer

Date

June 5, 2019 10:13 PM MDT

Photos / Sounds

What

Great Basin Gopher Snake (Pituophis catenifer ssp. deserticola)

Observer

birdwhisperer

Date

June 5, 2019 10:24 PM MDT

Photos / Sounds

What

Northern Pacific Rattlesnake (Crotalus oreganus ssp. oreganus)

Observer

birdwhisperer

Date

June 5, 2019 10:27 PM MDT

Photos / Sounds

What

Northern Pacific Rattlesnake (Crotalus oreganus ssp. oreganus)

Observer

birdwhisperer

Date

June 5, 2019 10:30 PM MDT

Photos / Sounds

What

Great Basin Gopher Snake (Pituophis catenifer ssp. deserticola)

Observer

birdwhisperer

Date

June 5, 2019 10:34 PM MDT

Photos / Sounds

What

Great Basin Gopher Snake (Pituophis catenifer ssp. deserticola)

Observer

birdwhisperer

Date

June 5, 2019 10:36 PM MDT

Photos / Sounds

What

Western Toad (Anaxyrus boreas)

Observer

birdwhisperer

Date

June 2019

Photos / Sounds

What

Western Toad (Anaxyrus boreas)

Observer

birdwhisperer

Date

June 2019

Comments

Nice memories.

Posted by sentraevant about 4 years ago

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