Blue Tail to Dripping Springs

 In the early days I'd catch rattlesnakes and take them to the intersection of Lockhart Basin and Chicken Corner and release them. They'd be back about a week later. Didn't paint them they just came back to the same place they got caught originally. I read up on them and learned that the Midget Faded or Faded Midget, I've seen them listed both ways, never went more than a mile from where they were born. They had some sort of beacon in them that kept them grounded to their birth neighborhood. Thinking about it I figured the beacon had to be a straight line. I started taking them three turns toward Chicken Corner where now they have to swim the river three times to get back. To add to it, down a fairly tough slope to get next to the river. They don't come back anymore. 

 There's something telling the rock squirrels where home is. I assume it's the smell of the river or the prominent saddle rock formation across the river that assists them in returning to the lodge. We caught the blue tailed one again and this time Jax and I took him way back into Dripping Springs, past the Wind Caves, where it can't see The Saddle and has several water springs to mitigate the smell of river water. When I use to drop them at the Train Station part way up Hurrah Pass, Jax would chase them off into the distance and be gone four or five minutes. He's never caught one but it keeps them from heading back to the side by side. Dropping the first one off in Dripping Springs there is so much cover the chase lasted about 15 seconds.