Today we discovered that the Camino walk we have been training for must be rescheduled. The government of Spain declared a national emergency with travel restrictions, as near as we can tell.
So returning to the puzzle of the snake was an attractive thought. We think we have him identified:
desert massasauga is a type of smallish rattlesnake that lives in the Rio Grande Valley. It likes dry grassy country, and since there has been very little rain this year it should be very happy these days! (Link is to a photo from the New Mexico herp society.) We're still having trouble spotting the pit in his face, but he certainly has the cat's eye pupils, and the color. The tail photo seems to show a small rattle chain beginning to form. And he has the full cheeks of a rattler instead of the narrow head of many other snakes.
We cropped the photos and came up with these detail bits:
The head
Overall look at the snake, lying on the pavement
Interested readers are welcome to add information about this interesting reptile in the comments.
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