Photo of the head of a timber rattlesnake I encountered at a nearby state park; it would have been nice if it had been coiled up! The area I found it in is one my *neighbor* told a lot of the snakes are concentrated; he grew up just outside of the park and he and his friends roamed all over. This was taken in late May, after they opened up the section of the park I usually would have photographed early spring wildflowers in. i was driving back down the narrow roadway and spotted some trillium growing alongside the opposite bank, took a couple of photos from the car, then decided to drive down where there was an area i could pull off a bit and not block the road and walk back up to where the trillium was. I had the window down, and just as I started to pull off the road I heard this sound that sounded like escaping air, just like my neighbor had told me,and on the other side of the road was the rattlesnake, making it?s way into the weeds. I couldn?t get out of the car fast enough-lol! It was about 4 foot long, very nicely marked, and not interested in sticking around, but i was able to get a few photos and a short video of it before it disappeared into the wooded area. Rattlesnakes are a member of the Crotalinae subspecies of vipers; they have heat-sensing organs located in pits below and between the eyes and nostrils that they use to detect the body heat of their prey. Adjusted brightness, sharpness, cropped.