Soul (Snake) Searching

Life has been presenting some strange and unique challenges to my sanity lately, so I decided to head out on Sunday for some soul-searching in the field. What better way than to look for snakes? Well, I don't think I found my soul, but I did find a sunburn, and a good number of our snakes. Here are a few quick photos of the beautfiful beasties:

#10, a huge male who has earned many questionable nicknames that cannot be posted here, due to his proclivity for courting the ladies (another week or two, and we expect more of those antics!):

#6, another large male:

#5, one of our biggest males:

#3, a beautiful black male:

A nice-looking male, not part of the study, who rattled at me from the exact same spot two weeks ago (I went back specifically looking for him, and there he was):

#19, a skinny female who will definitely not have babies this year:

#12, a gorgeous little female with a large meal in her belly (see how her scales are all stretched out, showing the skin in between?). Maybe it was a baby Easter bunny?

And finally, the wildflowers are beginning to put on quite a show. I had to pull over and take a photo on the way home:

Happy Easter, even to the bunny-eating snakes!