(Mission Times Courier, San Diego, Ca) -  Scott and John are Lake Murray tubers.  People that fish in a kind of inner tube are called tubers.  The tubes let them navigate easily in the water to find the perfect fishing spot.  They drive to the lake and after unpacking all of their fishing apparatus they load up their bodies.  They wrap the float tube around their shoulders like an accessory while carrying fishing poles.  They balance other unknown stuff used for fishing and begin their laborious shuffle towards the lake.  After hauling all of their paraphernalia down to the water's edge, they wade in and begin fishing.  I'm not making fun of them even if their looks remind me of turtles.  Asked if the pleasure was worth the preparatory work and a tuber said, "Definitely."

Recently, Scott and John said that as the maneuvered their tubes in the water, a rattlesnake followed them. My reaction was…hmmm.  A couple of days later, Dale Stiver took 12 photos of two rattlers twisted around each other in the water in the diversion ditch by Del Cerro hill.  A frenzy followed with quite a bit of the water stirred up.  The last photos showed the reptiles parting ways and heading up the hill.  The pictures are amazing.

I related the story to Joe Weber who is in charge of the Water Department's Recreation program at the nine city lakes. He said that he heard that rattlesnakes swim in water.  A fisherman told him that he saw a rattler when he was in a boat at El Capitan Reservoir.  Joe had never seen or heard of the rattlers ritual seen at our lake.

I read that there are 13 varieties of rattlesnakes in Arizona and wondered how many different rattlesnakes live in our vicinity.  All rattlers live and feed in their home range.  I called Dr. Brad Hollingsworth who is a herpetologist and curator at the San Diego Natural History Museum.  He said that there are four different kinds of rattlesnakes that live in and around San Diego County.  Three live on our side of the Cuyamaca Mountains, (a southern pacific, a red diamond and rare speckled rattlers) and a desert type snake (a sidewinder) lives on the other side of the mountains, east of the Cuyamacas. Brad said that the rattlesnakes don't swim in the water and that he thought that the recounted water snakes were probably garter snakes that do like the water.  He said that they have the same kind of triangular shape head as a rattler and they could be mistaken for one another.

About the smack down between the rattlers in the diversion ditch, he said that they were   two males that were probably tracking a female.  The snakes hear and see but their olfactory capacity is very strong. When they smell the pheromones of a female, they want her for their very own (my words).  It takes a lot of energy to lift their bodies high as they wind themselves around each other as they try to push the other guy down.  Who ever prevails in the push down, wins. Seeing the exotic challenge may be  how arm wrestling began.

Dr. Brad also said that it is very rare to see snakes in combat like the pictures that Dale took.  He was excited to see them.  Dale was at the right place right time and astute enough to realize it.  The things we learn at Lake Murray.

Most people have learned about the new opening hours at the car gate entrances.  The hours are 6:00am to 8:00pm.  For years, the openings have been advertised that the car gates would be open sunrise to sunset.  Those housr have not been enforced. Lake staff usually open the car gates at approximately 4:30am to accommodate early risers that like to exercise early and workers that have time limits because of job schedules.


Apparently, the lake supervisors feel that the lake staff can be more productive during the daylight hours.  It is hard to argue with that except that staff sometimes empty trashcans by the light of their headlights and sweep branches and debris off of the lake road after a rain or windstorm.  They check for fishing permits too.  Staff also helps the Park and Recreation Department by opening the doors of the permanent restroom at the ball field when it is early.  The plan is that in the spring the gates will open at 5:30am.

Another swan died at the lake.  It had no obvious signs of trauma.  The other swan has been aggressive and the two have been fighting according to lake staff.  At least twelve swans have died over the years from attacks by coyotes or in this case perhaps natural causes.  A friend saw a coyote drag a swan off in the brush years ago, and other swan feathers body parts have been found in bushes.

It is hoped that no new swans will be brought to the lake.  Their wings feathers have been clipped and there is no way that they can fly out of harms way.  The last person that collected to get a swan promised that it would be the last time.  That was when we tried to talk her out of buying another one.  We love seeing the swans but it is cruel to keep putting them on lake to be food for hungry animals.

When we wear our Friends of Lake Murray tee shirts, we are asked where to get them.  The Friends have been selling them one piece at a time.  We only have one venue .a year to sell them.  Therefore, Mission Trails Regional Park Visitor Center has taken over selling the tees in the gift shop

I hope to have some good photos of our I Love a Clean San Diego pickup in the next Mission Times Courier.  I am writing this before it occurs and we already have 172 people pre-registered.  There are three more days before the event.  The lake and the environs should get really clean.

The October 15th Friends of Lake Murray meeting will have Dr. Anne Sturz speak to us.  Anne spoke to our group in the spring and the room was packed with people.  The flu had me down but I heard that he program on geology was a big success.  Anne spoke a bit about volcanoes and Yellowstone Park among other places.  Our audience wanted to learn more and she promised to come back.  Since Anne already gave an over-view of interesting places, her October talk will be more in depth.

Dr. Sturz is a Dean at the University of San Diego.  She has a BS and Masters degrees in geology and a doctoral in Marine Biology from Scripps Institute of Oceanography.  I look forward to meeting her.  As you know, we meet at St. Dunstan's Episcopal Church on the corner of Wandermere and Park Ridge Blvd. at 5pm.  For more information on our program call Barbara Cleves at: (619) 463-9706. 

Photo credit: Dale Stiver