When I was a feature writer for the Hagerstown Herald Mail daily newspaper, I heard about this guy who tracked Maryland timber rattler populations to see how they were surviving. Every spring, when the snakes emerged from hibernation, he trekked through the hills to find the rattlers he had been marking over the years. I thought “That could be a fun story.”
He let me tag along one warm early spring day. By the end of the day, in the center of a thriving den outside Frederick, MD, he was picking up what seemed like dozens of snakes hidden inches from us in the leaves. I was standing on a foot-square rock, rethinking the “fun” thing. As we walked back to the car, we could hear the rattles all the way down the mountain. Writing the feature was a little more comfortable than the research.