Snakes Alive! Rattler Spotted Amid Beach Storm Debris

Joseph Cleary was on beach cleanup patrol Wednesday when he was startled by the sight of a rattlesnake sunning itself on a pile of storm debris just south of the Newport Pier.

“It was quite feisty,” Cleary said of the viper, which he and a group of helpers prodded into a large trash barrel until professional backup arrived.

Newport Beach Animal Control Officer Mike Teague said the rattler found near 17th Street and West Ocean Front was one of many snakes that were probably washed down the Santa Ana River, into the ocean and cast on the beach after the recent storms.

Most, however, have turned up dead.

When Teague got Cleary’s call, he had just come from Little Corona Beach to collect a dead gopher snake that was found earlier Wednesday and draped on a lifeguard tower. Last week, during the heaviest rainfall, he was called to rescue a small king snake found near the Balboa Pier.

“We do get sea lions and seals washing up on the beach during storms,” Teague said. “We found a fur seal a couple of weeks ago that was alive, and we were able to get it down to Friends of the Sea Lion in Laguna Beach.

“But a rattlesnake,” he said, “is real unusual.”

Teague was able to capture the king snake and relocate it to the hills above Newport Beach. The poisonous reptile was not so fortunate. Because they haven’t the facilities to transport or keep a rattlesnake, the animal control officer said, he had to kill it.

The reptile was described as black and dark brown in color against the brown of the twigs and beach debris. It had a diamond-like pattern to its skin, five rattles, and was about the size of a silver dollar in girth and about 3 1/2 to four feet long.

UC Irvine evolutionary biologist Albert F. Bennett said it was most likely either a southern Pacific rattlesnake, which are common throughout the foothills and brush areas of Southern California, or a red diamondback, which are found in hills around Riverside or rocky outcroppings around Corona.

“Either of those are candidates,” Bennett said.

Bennett, who has done considerable research on snakes and other reptiles, said it was the first time he had heard of a snake, particularly a rattler, being washed up on a local beach.

“Still, if it came down the river and didn’t get bashed against anything, reptiles swim quite well, and they can survive a long period of time in water with nothing to eat,” Bennett said.

Nonetheless, he called the find “a highly unusual event.”

Teague said that most of the debris from the storm has been hauled away and that the likelihood of finding more live, poisonous reptiles is slim.

But Cleary, a director of television commercials and a longtime beachfront resident, urged others to be cautious, particularly among the remaining storm detritus.

“I don’t want to be an alarmist, but there could be others,” he said. “So driftwood seekers and beachcombers, when you’re looking for treasures, be careful, because you might just find a rattlesnake.”