My most recent encounter in the animal kingdom!

As you may be able to tell from the above picture, I encountered my first diamonback Rattlesnake this week! The snake was probably a little over 4 feet long and maybe 6-8 inches in diameter. I was really overjoyed by this encounter. I've heard so much about rattlers and I've never seen one. 3 years in new mexico and never encountered one! Well, now I have and I have to say that they are gorgeous and intimidating. I was really struck by the bold lines running down the sides of its face. I guess I wasn't expecting these snakes to be so beautiful.

Anywho, we came upon this snake sunning himself on one of the roads on the base. I could write a lot more about the encounter, but if your interested I've already posted about it in my blog, which is linked over on the side. Mainly I wanted to post one of the pictures I took ( I know I know, not the greatest pic, but i was a little nervous about getting too close), so some of my interested cousins could see!

PS: Just so you all can be jealous its been in the upper 70s/low 80s all week. Gorgeous! Of course what this means for the temperatures in July I don't even want to contemplate!