Filmed by Stephanie Smith
Using a golf club and pillowcase, our Joshua Tree friend Bert captures what seems to be a venomous Western Diamond-backed rattlesnake (there’s many names for this girl — Pacific rattler, etc.) turned out to be a Green Mojave rattlesnake that I’d come across this morning while doing chores. She was hanging out in a shallow rodent’s burrow in the sand beneath the aviary wire bottom of our GrowShack, probably sleeping after a night of hunting. Bert, a devoted and knowledgeable friend of snakes, was here within two hours to help. Less than five minutes after arriving, he’d successfully captured the animal—and washed the sand out of its mouth that had got in there during the capture.
Bert will relocate the animal to suitable terrain where she’s much less likely to come in contact with humans. Everyone wins. Special thanks to our friend Thomas from the Barnraisers, who passed us Bert’s cel phone number.
More info on this rattlesnake: digital-desert.com
In March, Bert helped us relocate another green mojave: Click here to read about it.
Learning to Live Here 