By Jerry Lynott
The Times Leader, Wilkes-Barre, Pa.
NOXEN, Pa. — The car from Virginia with the “Don’t Tread on Me” license plate of a coiled rattlesnake baring fangs offered sage advice for Casey McAndrew.
The 19-year-old from Dallas beat the bushes and poked under logs and rocks for rattlesnakes Saturday in the hills above the Noxen Volunteer Fire Co.'s fairgrounds and caught one.
He brought the 45-inch reptile to the Rattlesnake Roundup, the first catch of the day at the annual fundraiser for the Wyoming County firefighters.
“It was in a crevice. It kind of stuck its head out,” McAndrew said, explaining how he found it. He picked it out with long-handled tongs and a pole with a hooked end. Like the nearly 40 licensed hunters who paid a $5 registration fee, he carried his capture to the fair grounds in plastic container strapped to metal rucksack frame on his back.
It was his first year hunting, having previously helped out at the event. McAndrew, who wore leather boots and gaiters over them to protect against bites, wasn’t nervous as he hunted with his guide.
“I wasn’t shaking,” McAndrew said, and the almost 2-pound snake, later determined to be a male by the 23 subcaudal scales on the underside of the tail, wasn’t as fierce as he thought it would be.
By this evening he’ll return the snake to where he found it. So too will the other hunters, said Lew Hackling, fire chief.
“That’s part of our requirements and the Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission’s,” he said.
James Chestney, venomous species conservation coordinator with the commission, joined Hackling, the hunters and others in a fenced in pen where the snakes were brought to be weighed, measured, marked. Chestney used a hypodermic needle to place a small metallic cylinder bearing an identification number in the snake.
Hackling said the hunters have a 40-mile radius from Noxen to search for the rattlers. Awards will be given out for the largest snake, the one with the most rattles and other categories.
Besides the roundup, there are food and beverages, entertainment, a firemen’s parade and fireworks set to go off at 9:30 p.m. today.
The grounds open at 1 p.m. today and snakes will be on display from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Hackling likened the four-day event that began Thursday to other church bazaars or firemen’s picnic throughout the region, but Noxen’s comes “with a little twist.”
That’s what attracted 6-year-old Logan Spencer of Shavertown.
He got up close and personal with the tail end of rattler that one of the handlers was holding out for people to touch.
“Scaly. Cold,” he said, describing how it felt.
Joe Hill took a look, too.
Hill, of Shavertown, came out for an afternoon of fun and learned a thing or two about the timber rattlesnake that is a candidate for threatened and endangered species in Pennsylvania.
“Actually, it’s very educational,” Hill said.
From where he sat in a set of bleachers set back about eight feet from the fenced-in snake pen, Ed Loncoski, of Plains Township, felt secure.
He watched one of the snakes crawl along the bottom of the wire mesh fence. He said he heard the hunters searched along Bowman Creek, one of his fishing areas.
“I never saw one and I’m glad,” he said.
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(c)2014 The Times Leader (Wilkes-Barre, Pa.)
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