Hi All,

This is just an odd bit of curiosity. Just as I was approaching Rohnert Park today there was a rattlesnake crossing this very busy two lane road. It wasn't a baby, or old either, but somewhere in the middle. About 16 inches long and of course people being what they are, all of them tried to avoid running over it. I would have done my part but I was to far to the left to swing over and put it out of someone's soon to be misery.

There was a case of a rattlesnake bite down in Salinas last week, so it could be just the warm weather that is bringing them out, or it could be pre-quake related. So I'm just mentioning it and we'll see if anything happens. The area where this occurred is due east of my old study area which is on the RCF about two miles east of the road.

The odd thing is that from the area it came from, had it gone the opposite direction it would have found shade, a creek and a few sag ponds. So it must be a stupid snake.

Some years ago a woman who was driving a corvette down the LA basin area was on the freeway and in trying to avoid running over a rattlesnake ended up rolling her nice sports car. I don't understand this kind of behavior, but I'm wondering if people think if they run over them they will get attached to the car or something like that.

So we'll see....Petra