Yellow Phase Timber Rattlesnake

I’ve lived in the Pinelands almost my whole life, but before recently I had never seen a Timber Rattlesnake in the wild before, despite trying. After lots of research, I packed up my long lens went to where I thought I might find a rattler at a time and date that I thought I was mostly likely to find one. I had just started looking when to my surprise, I practically stepped on this one, sunning itself on a log. I tried to stay about 10 feet back from it so as not to scare it. It seemed perfectly content to just stay where it is was, with his head just laying on the log. The color was somewhat unique and rare. It was in what is called a “yellow phase”. I tried to get a shot just as it stuck its tongue out, testing the air to see if I was still there. You can clearly see the pits on either side of its face that it uses to detect the heat of prey. It’s these pits that give them the name “pit vipers”.