I'm jealous. I am sure we at one time had rattlers here as well but they are now confined mostly to the southern tip of the state with only a few exceptions.
We own 80 acres of rocky upland forest and I would LOVE to think I could somehow reintroduce the native rattlers there, but someone would eventually get wind of it and I'd have the whole population around here on my back.
Legend has it that a large hibernaculum(sp)of rattlers was discovered about 40 miles west of here years and years ago, but of course the locals rode in with the usual arsenal and saved the good townsfolk from the menacing snakes and they were seen no more.
Life's just full of reruns, isn't it?

Yay! How refreshing it is to see folks appreciating finding a venomous snake in their yard. I live in the city limits of a medium sized city but have an undeveloped rocky wooded wildlife corridor out my back yard whose hollows are too deep to be developed. I was delighted one spring day while navigating the steep hillsides looking for snakes to discover a copperhead sunning outside a rocky den on a steep hillside in the park. I opted not to tell any of my neighbors that there is a copperhead den near our homes for fear that they would freak out, imagine a threat, and destroy the den.

I live on the edge of an ecosystem, and we should have many snakes, including rattlesnakes. We do not. Unfortunately, years ago, I told my neighbor that reptiles are my favorite animals. In a somewhat sarcastic manner, he asked me to release a rattlesnake he had placed into a coffee can. I think he didn't believe me when I told him I liked snakes too. I think he thought I was lying or something as if no one could possibly love reptiles.

So, I took the rattler, put my hiking boots on and walked down into the canyon, the rattler's natural habitat that is a natural park perserve. I opened the lid, took a few steps back, and he looked at me, testing the air with his tongue and slithered away. I know this cannot be possibly true, but I felt the expression on his face was of thanks. I guess he was just glad to get out of that hot coffee can.

They are called rattlesnake round-ups, these carousels [sp] of throwing rattlesnakes in sacks, many in one bag. These animals have very delicate and fragile spines. Must be pretty safe and easy to kill as they round them up and do a pretty good and easy job of killing huge numbers at one time.

Guess they have never heard the words, the ecology of Earth. The round-uppers didn't know they were making our planet much less safe.

They didn't know that rattlesnakes, like all biological diversity, are a strand in the web of all life and that the National Academy of scientists recognize that biological diversity losses and extinction make Earth as safe for man -- about as much as thermonuclear war.

Amphibians are going extinct left and right and reptiles aren't far behind. Cable program on Hawaii's extinct species. "When a plant or animal goes extinct, Earth pushes closer to extinctiom." And, this statement is about all biological diversity, native snakes, frogs, lizards, etc. (Have any of you seen snakes mate?] tessyt, an eco-literate.

Very cool find, Serenoa! I still remember horrifying my Mom by bringing home a baby timber rattler in a Mason jar (I was only about 10 at the time, but I did bring it back to where I found it when I let it go...) I love snakes and enjoyed seeing rattlers out west - they're very good at letting you know they're there, and I know that the odds are very long against ever being bitten (unless you're liquored up, as another thread recently discussed).

I have very few snakes in my yard - I have seen maybe 10 garter snakes in the 6 years we've lived here, and no other species, despite a lot of decent habitat and no chemicals in the yard. I don't even have neighbors to blame. I think the problem is that the dense network of roads around here works against dispersal, and much of the local wildlife was wiped out 15+ years ago in a chlorine leak from the water plant (according to the neighbor who has lived here 40 years) - and maybe the snakes still haven't made it back. It took rabbits a very long time to come back, with the first pairs showing up only 2 years ago.

Anyway, we have brush and rock piles galore waiting to be inhabited. Couple of quick funny snake stories - with regards to rattlers, I used to dig with a paleontologist in Wyoming in the summer. We camped for momths and our latrine was basically a ravine away from camp. I remember my tent mate needing to see a man about a horse one evening; it was a full moon, so she just headed out without a flashlight. She didn't come back for 45 minutes, and when she returned she told me that she was just getting comfortable behind a bush when a rattler buzzed. She couldn't see it, moonlight or not, so there she crouched for as long as she could, in flagrante and feeling exceptionally vulnerable, hoping that the rattler was slithering away (probably snickering!)

And second, while we have had very few snakes in the yard, one nearly gave me a heart attack a few years ago. I was walking back down the steps in the back yard after feeding the chickens when I feel a whap on my leg - I looked down and a coiled snake was drawing back to strike again! I leaped about 6' down the rest of the steps, turned around and looked at this snake, which didn't look anything like any snake I was familiar with. It was coiled, flattened and hissing, and it scared the heck out of me. But I ran inside, grabbed my handy reptile guide (and my son) and ran back out to ID it. Turns out it was a garter snake - the local, brownish, grayish kind (not the striking black and yellow kind I knew from New England). It was so terrified it was doing a pretty good imitation of a missisauga rattler and it had sure fooled me. I could just hear it thinking "What am I doing wrong? Why did she come back? Better look even scarier!" :)

Loved the restroom rattler story, but it puts my most common behind-a-bush complaint in perspective: all I ever have to worry about here is getting careless and hunkering down next to a poison ivy plant.

I haven't seen as many good sized rat snakes as usual this year, but we had an abundance of smaller rats, corn, garter, greens, and racers. Did have one or two kingsnakes as well, which are always interesting.
I guess the biggest ratsnake on record for this year was the one I pulled off the road down by the farm. It is not easy to swerve and miss a 6 foot snake in a loaded grain truck but I saw it there ahead of me AND managed to get stopped with just enough time to snatch it away before the next vehicle hit it in all the dust. I have learned that during emergencies like this when there's not much time for a careful introduction, you are likely going to get bitten and worse-THE POOP- but the snakes I have here are not poisonous and the rats usually calm down after that first nip anyway.
This handsome snake would have been a marvelous teaching snake to have around people--even with the excitement of getting jerked up off the nice warm road by a crazed farmgirl it never once had a go at me.
Guess it's probably found a suitable wintering spot out there in the woods by now.

Wish I had your snakes, dirtgirl! I am leery of picking snakes up after encountering one of those rare garters that WILL bite (little bugger hung off my thumb for what seemed like eternity...), but I certainly enjoy watching them. We're considering building a hibernaculum on the Field of Dreams principle, but I don't know if they really would come or not.

I've seen negative comments on snakes in this forum. It is refreshing to hear from some serious wildlife gardeners. Like dirtgirl, I've considered re-introducing native snakes to my property. One problem is that my neighbors do not share my enthusiam for all forms of wildlife. Another is that prey populations may be too fragile to support new predators. I like the "field of dreams" reference. I think I'll just let my property become a good wildlife habitat and see what comes to it.