Herpetofauna: One Life's List

Sistrurus miliarius barbouri
Dusky Pigmy Rattlesnake

Franklin Co., Florida. March 20, 2006

The day was cool and overcast, with temperatures in the low seventies.  That afternoon I was poking around on a spit of land jutting out into East Bay, close to where the Apalachicola River completes its journey to the sea.  I was in a cabbage palm hammock, perhaps a hundred feet from the water, hoping to run across a Pigmy Rattler.  As I followed a faint trail, I used my snake hook to lift fallen palm and palmetto fronds - there were plenty of those to serve as hiding places for small rattlesnakes.

As luck would have it, my first Pigmy was out in the open, crossing the trail.  This was a fairly good-sized specimen, perhaps sixteen to eighteen inches in length.  It was not the prettiest snake, being rather drab and dull in appearance, but I wasn't going to complain.  I took some pictures and let the snake go on its way.

See the related Herp Journal: Panhandular Herping