PENSACOLA, Fla. – It was a day to remember Tuesday at Pensacola Beach, but not necessarily because it was fun.

Beachgoers near the Fort Pickens area of Pensacola Beach were shocked to notice a snake emerge onto the shore around 4 p.m.

East Hill resident Rhonda Saunders said she had no clue how it got there but was stunned to see it. She thinks the snake's journey fatigued it quite a bit.

"I was with my daughters, and we saw a small crowd of people taking pictures of something that had washed up on the beach. We walked over and couldn’t believe it," Saunders said. "(The snake) was exhausted. Trying to keep its head above the water. Too tired to get onto the sand."

Saunders said some folks started calling for professional assistance, and it was a good thing, too, because she was only gonna get so close.

"We felt sorry for it, struggling like that," Saunders said. "But I certainly wasn’t gonna help it out."

Saunders estimated the snake to be about 3 feet in length. She said the crowd gathering around her proclaimed it to be a diamondback rattlesnake.

Biologists with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission could not definitively identify the snake based on Saunders' photo, which the News Journal sent to them in an email Wednesday afternoon.

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Saunders said a woman with whom an Escambia County spokesperson later identified as animal control rescued the snake.

"She scooped him up with a long-handled net, and dropped him into a carrier," Saunders said. "Not much fight left in him."

Saunders noted that there were no lifeguards in the area at the time of the snake spotting.

"Won’t forget that beach day!" Saunders exclaimed.