Anyway, this first picture is probably the most interesting. My wife discovered this three foot long snake about dusk on the concrete slab in one of the rooms of her parents' partially completed home (they are also building down here). I lifted it up with a stick and dropped it into a plastic barrel (with lid), then drove about a mile away to release it. It had markings I hadn't seen before, so I took some pictures of it as I released it and then looked it up on the internet when I got home. It turns out that having white bands that much wider than the black bands on its tail identify it as a Mojave Rattlesnake, supposedly the most dangerous rattlesnake in The United States. Most rattlesnake venoms cause tissue degeneration, but the venom from a Mojave Rattlesnake is a neuro-toxin. It causes brain and spinal cord damage, and victims often die of suffocation if not treated soon.
And yes ... this area turns out to be part of the normal territory of the Mojave Rattlesnake.
And this picture shows another Blacktailed Rattlesnake, which seems to be the most common variety in our neighborhood. They are fairly passive and actually quite pretty, but this particular snake was the largest Blacktailed Rattlesnake we've seen and it was only fifteen feet outside the dining room window of our new house. I estimated it to be four feet long. Again, I loaded it into the barrel and relocated it a couple hundred yards away, taking some pictures of it as it crawled up onto a rock.
