Fieldherper.com » Field Herping

Trio of Timber Rattlesnakes

Bryan — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 15:17:46 +0000

This rock hid at least three Timber rattlesnakes, keeping out of sight on a rather cold, wet morning. The yellow one takes the cake, in my opinion. Sorry, other guys in the photo.

Beautiful Blacktail

Bryan — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 15:08:06 +0000

One of the ways that I’ve decided to take my hobby is to start speaking at events as a local snake ‘expert’. I have a pretty decent collection of native rattlesnakes at home, but it was finally time to go try and pick up a great specimen of my absolute favorite of Arizona rattlesnakes, the Northern Blacktailed Rattlesnake, Crotalus molossus molossus. When it comes to blacktails, there aren’t any more beautiful than as can be found in the Sky Islands region of South East Arizona. I set aside 3 days to head to my favorite range and find my prize.

Success came on the first night, finding two absolutely knockout animals. After careful comparison, I decided that the larger, and higher contrast, of the two would come home with me. Before leaving the area, however, I took this photo of him in the rocks near where he was found, stretched out in the cold rain.

Crotalus molossus

For comparison, here is another blacktail, found in the McDowell mountains earlier in the year. You can clearly see why I looked to find mine in the range that I chose.

Sleepy lady

Eastern Collared Lizard – Blacktail Collateral

Bryan — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 15:01:06 +0000

These beautiful lizards are common sights on rocks on route to one of my favorite blacktail and Arizona black rattlesnake spots. They’re a bit hard to photograph with the 28-135 I had handy, but I manage to get one from time to time. If nothing else, getting out every mile or so to chase lizards is a nice diversion during the 2 hour drive in to this location.

Eastern Collared Lizard

Eastern Milksnake, Lampropeltis triangulum triangulum

Bryan — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 15:02:17 +0000

… aaaaand the milksnake mentioned in the previous post. Another very common snake in Pennsylvania, but of course the first (and only) I’ve ever seen. It’s amazing to me how much the pattern and color converge with non-Lampropeltis genera (such as Pantherophis) of similar lifestyle. Not the most colorful of the species, it was a really nice diversion on the way to the 20 or so Timber rattlesnakes we saw that day.

Lampropeltis-triangulum-triangulum

American Toad, Anaxyrus mericanus

Bryan — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 15:47:48 +0000

The first of these I’ve seen, on a 2011 trip to Pennsylvania. It was cold enough outside to see my breath that night, which isn’t something I’m used to looking for herps in back in Arizona.

Banded Rock Rattlesnake Out at Night

Bryan — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 15:56:18 +0000

Here’s a pretty, young male Banded Rock Rattlesnake I found one night out crawling around. He was just over a foot long, but he didnt’ seem to know it … probably the most aggressive of this species I’ve ever seen. I escaped with all fingers intact.

Timber Rattlesnake Den

Bryan — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 15:56:40 +0000

This is one of the many small den sites we found in a few days during Spring of 2010, and this was a typical site. In the middle of the rocks are just a pile of very large rattlesnakes. This trip was my first time experiencing timber rattlesnakes at all, to see them just laying around in piles was a great way to let that happen. Here are a few photos.

Crotalus horridus

Weird Looking Rock

Bryan — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 15:52:23 +0000

I’m not sure who this snake was trying to fool, but it wasn’t me. A bright orange rattlesnake sitting on top of a rock caught my eye from a good 50 feet away and brought me over, and yup, it’s a speckled rattlesnake out getting some morning sun. I found a good spot and watched her do her thing for over an hour, during which time she moved very little. Eventually it got too hot, and she retreated to an area I am guessing is where she eventually had her babies – a spot I will return to and hopefully see her again.

Crotalus mitchelli pyrrhus

Diamondback in the Early Evening

Bryan — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 15:51:18 +0000

We had a great night after this shot was taken. This was the first of many we’d see in the next few hours.

Common Snake on Uncommon Terms

Bryan — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 15:29:29 +0000

These long-nosed snakes can be found about anywhere that sleeping lizards can, and I see a lot of them. This kind though, not so much. The clarus phase is lighter and the red bands between the black are completely missing, or in this case faded to a few rosy hold-outs near the last third of the snake.

Long-Nosed Snake, Rhinocheilus lecontei

longnosed snake

Black Phase Timber Rattlesnake

Bryan — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 15:50:00 +0000

Crotalus horridus

Big Bend Patch-Nosed Snake

Bryan — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 15:24:59 +0000

I was driving along on my way to Carlsbad New Mexico and saw this guy cruising through a field off the side of the road near Columbus. I was able to get out and in front of him and get a couple of photos. The first is when he first saw his path obstructed with a hairless ape laying in the grass like a moron.

Big Bend Patch-Nosed Snake

White Pine County, Nevada

Bryan — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 15:35:40 +0000

On a recent trip to Idaho, I got to spend an afternoon in the Great Basin National Park area of Eastern Nevada. I struck out on my target snakes, but still really enjoyed myself in the remote upland areas of the wilderness there.

Pennsylvania! Timber Rattlesnakes all over the place.

Bryan — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 15:18:30 +0000

In May I had a chance to go to Pennsylvania to visit some good friends and photograph dozens of wild Timber rattlesnakes (Crotalus horridus). It was by far the furthest East I have ever been, and it was incredibly fun being in environments that were completely alien to me. Every plant, insect, and of course reptile were something I’d never seen before.

We ended up seeing a great variety of species; much more than I had planned on. The most impressive to me were the timbers, but I have to say I was most excited for the two Eastern massassaugas we got to photograph. The weather was cold and very wet most of the time (I learned ‘rain gear’ isn’t all created equal), and it was very strange to me to even be out looking in such conditions … May in Arizona is already too hot in the daytime to be looking beyond a few hours after sunup.

Within 2 hours of stepping off the plane in Buffalo, we’d seen 9 rattlesnakes. Incredible! What is great to mention as well, as that this was made possible because of this blog I’ve been keeping for awhile. The couple of guys that hosted me and showed me the amazing sights originally had contacted me a few years back about meeting up here in Arizona, and we’ve kept in contact since then and get out fo see some snakes once a year. This site has helped me meet not only many herpers all around the world, but the right kind of them; conservation minded, animals-first kind of people. This Springtime trip to PA symbolizes all that for me.

Anyway, just a bit of an explanation before I start posting all these East coast animals. I’ll still be posting lots of animals from Arizona and New Mexico, but I need to start getting these into the mix as well. To wrap it up: a few timbers.

Terrible Photo of a First-Time Lizard

Bryan — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 15:15:04 +0000

Ya, I know … but it was the first of these guys I photographed, so it is what it is! I’ve seen a lot more since then, and apparently had seen a lot before too, after taking the time to learn the visual differences between this and other common lizards in the area. Striped Plateau Lizard, Scoloporus virgatus.

Striped Plateau Lizard

Sonoran Mountain Kingsnake, Lampropeltis pyromelena

Bryan — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 15:49:55 +0000

L-pyromelena-1-070911

L-pyromelena-2-070911

Blacktailed Rattlesnake Getting Out of the Summer Sun

Bryan — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 15:19:31 +0000

After a long day of searching without much to show for it, we found this guy sitting out the sunshine 30 steps from the car on the way out on a “let’s just check that shady spot really quick” time-waster. Glad we stopped!

Blacktailed Badass

Black-Necked Gartersnakes Tadpole Hunting

Bryan — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 15:22:41 +0000

In the pools of water near one of my favorite black-tail spots, these baby gartersnakes are everywhere. They’re trying to eat tadpoles, and they’re absolutely awful at it. For as much time as I’ve spent there, I’ve never seen one actually succeed (though I have seen them try and miss a lot).

Black Necked Gartersnake

Thamnophis

Western Diamondback in the Early Morning

Bryan — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 15:11:01 +0000

Kris and I found this diamondback laying in the middle of a dry wash at about 5am one morning, exactly as pictured here. We were really up there looking for blacktails and az black rattlers, but I’m always happy to see an atrox.

Sleepy time

atrox

The Arizona Strip

Bryan — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 15:10:30 +0000

Arizona Strip

Colorful Sonoran Gophersnake

Bryan — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 15:45:36 +0000

This one isn’t technically wild; he was captured by my snake removal service at a home in Phoenix and this is the the wash where he’s released. I don’t usually photograph the releases, but he looked cool on the white rocks, so here he is. Gophersnakes like this are the second most common animal I am called to capture around Phoenix. Western Diamondback Rattlesnakes are the first.

Gophersnake

Lonely Young Mojave

Bryan — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 17:40:59 +0000

This is one of just a handful of young snakes we found on a hot, dry June evening West of Phoenix. While I don’t normally go looking for these guys in the driest parts of the year, I had a friend in town and it seemed possible to see something … and if you only go out when success is certain, you never learn anything.

Mojave Rattlesnake

Little Teeny Baby Horned Lizard

Bryan — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 15:35:43 +0000

We found this little dude sitting in a wash where I frequently look for Black-Tailed Rattlesnakes (we found one of those too).

It’s a greater short-horned lizard, Phrynosoma hernandesi.

Greater Short Horned Lizard

Coachwhip In-Situ

Bryan — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 15:47:13 +0000

These guys are hard to catch, and harder to photograph. I managed to sneak up on this one getting some early morning sun and get a photo shots before it disappeared into the brush.

Sonoran Coachwhip, Coluber flagellum cingulum

Coachwhip

Mojave Rattlesnake

Bryan — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 15:32:40 +0000

Crotalus scutulatus

Arizona Black Rattlesnake with a Fancy Tongue

Bryan — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 15:44:04 +0000

I haven’t seen this before! Bright pink tongue coming out of that dark little venom-filled head.

Crotalus cerberus

Arizona Black Rattlesnake from a New Locale

Bryan — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 15:24:09 +0000

It feels good being right about stuff, especially after some hard work. I had an idea about new locations to find Arizona Black Rattlesnakes, Crotalus cerberus, and got to work looking at maps. A few days later, here’s the result; a big rattlesnake laying in ambush near a waterhole. It’s a great feeling to see these in general, but it’s especially fun when they prove a theory.

He’s pretty cool looking, too.

Crotalus cerberus

Arizona Black Rattlesnake

Good Morning to You Too, Asshole

Bryan — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 15:39:52 +0000

After a long night of herping and not seeing much at all, I finally found … or was found, rather, by this diamondback just a few yards from my camp. I think he was already a little worked up from the cows that came through a short time beforehand.

Western Diamondback Rattlesnake, Crotalus atrox

Crotalus atrox

Sonoran Whipsnake In-Situ

Bryan — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 17:20:38 +0000

This is the first Sonoran Whipsnake, Coluber bilineatus, I’ve managed to photograph as-seen without being laid across a roadway or other artificial basking surface. I was hiking through a canyon in the Superstition mountains with Mark Leppin and saw him coming out of a tangle of brush. He sat perfectly still and we got a few pictures.

Coluber bilineatus

Blah blah blah. Way behind on all counts. Upcoming trip.

Bryan — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 03:14:48 +0000

So, I’m way behind on this thing. I do have a few posts coming in on essentially maintenance mode (one per week, set well ahead of time) so that I had the freedom to not look at a computer for awhile and be out looking for snakes. It’s been a tough year so far with the ultra dry conditions, but still one of what I feel is personal growth in regards to finding these guys in the wild. The role that photographing them takes has changed as well, and I’m happy that the world still seems to be completely wide open with this hobby of mine.

I’ve come to realize this year that, with most of these species, I now am practiced enough that I could just go see one whenever I want (of course conditions being somewhat favorable), and I have more than enough photos of the same old diamondback pose to last several lifetimes sitting on my hard drive. I’m starting to favor taking less photos overall, and trying to do more to capture the environment and feel of the time/place of the observation than the animal itself. When I am hiking these days, my snake hook only serves as a walking stick, and very occasional annoying-blade-of-grass-mover to get a shot. The vast majority of animals photographed are disturbed not at all or very little. I don’t know, too much detail here? I’m just very happy that this thing seems to progress on its own.

In a week I’ll be traveling to the Grand Canyon area to spend several days looking for 2 of the last 3 species of rattlesnake I have left to see in Arizona, before going to South Western Idaho to look for Western Rattlesnakes (and visit some old friends). I’m realizing that I have posted very little of my finds from the year, but I need something to do in the winter! I’ll try to throw up some of the backup and at least get the ball rolling, and hopefully that will make this blog at least seem a little bit alive while I finish up my season.

I’ll wrap up this this bore-fest with a baby black-necked gartersnake, sitting as found on one of the driest days of the year.

T-cyrtopsis-1-062111

Diamondback with a Cool Pattern

Bryan — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 17:16:02 +0000

Looking for giant Diamondback Rattlesnakes with some Swedish friends visiting the US for the first time, we found this cool little guy. The diamond pattern on the latter third of her body had been reduced to a series of black blotches. This is part of the reason that no matter how many diamondbacks or sidewinders I see, it’s always good to take an extra look.

Crotalus atrox

Sonoran Lyresnake

Bryan — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 15:43:56 +0000

Trimorphodon lambda: Pencil-thin, huge-eyed, and slightly venomous … I love these guys.

Trimorphodon lambda

Diamondback Crawling Through Brush

Bryan — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 19:03:51 +0000

Nothing too special about this one … a pretty typical looking animal for this area. I followed it for a short time but failed to get any good full-body images, as it was moving through thick brush. I did manage to get this shot of his head, however, as he crawled between shrubs.

Crotalus atrox

Checkered Gartersnake from New Mexico

Bryan — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 15:41:39 +0000

I know they’re common as dirt, but I rarely see these checkered gartersnakes in Arizona, with the exception of along certain grassland corridors. They’re pretty little snakes that, in my experience, aren’t so quick to musk and bite as their black-necked cousins more commonly seen around Phoenix.

T-marcianus-1-051810

T-marcianus-2-051810

Diamondback in the Morning

Bryan — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 15:49:29 +0000

Crotalus atrox

One Of My Favorite Finds from 2010, Black Tailed Rattlesnake in the Guadalupe Mountains

Bryan — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 15:45:35 +0000

I like how the photo turned out, but to me, this is the end of weeks of searching, many miles hiked, hundreds of miles on the road, and way too many of gas station burritos from Carlsbad, NM. I found it with my sister, so it was even better.

Crotalus molossu

Good Morning Mr. Grumpypants

Bryan — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 15:36:48 +0000

I know the sun just came up, but you don’t have to be so rude.

Crotalus atrox

Chihuahuan Nightsnake

Bryan — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 15:32:05 +0000

Here’s a rather large (by large, I mean about 14″) nightsnake from New Mexico. This species is of a tougher build and more squat than the Desert species I’m used to seeing in Phoenix … pretty cool, and puts on quite a threat display that I wasn’t expecting. I regretfully didn’t get any good photos of the display before it balled up into this more familiar “uncle” pose.

Snakes of the Niiiigiiiggghhhit!

Calm Down There, Buddy

Bryan — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 15:26:19 +0000

One of the only snakes of this trip, we saw this medium-sized gophersnake early on. They tend to show up like that, on the drive into the prime location, giving the false impression that it’s going to be a great day. It was a great day of friends and field of course, but snakes were a bit sparse. Regardless, we were happier to see this guy than he was to see us.

gophersnake

Mr. Grumpy

You Can’t See Me

Bryan — Mon, 30 May 2011 15:22:57 +0000

The camo is especially effective in the low sun of late-day. I realized that I would never even see these guys if they didn’t always run off when I approach. Someone should tell them to stay put, because they’re way too easy to catch … even by big slow herpers like me.

Regal Horned Lizard

Black Necked Gartersnake

Bryan — Fri, 27 May 2011 15:46:57 +0000

Here’s a little, baby black-necked gartersnake (Thamnophis cyrtopsis) from Yavapai county, one of the first I’d ever seen in this area, and a good distance from any water source.

T-cyrtopsis-081807

Chiricahua Leopard Frog

Bryan — Mon, 23 May 2011 15:20:07 +0000

Near Phoenix, I’m not used to seeing frogs. One of the nice things about the Southern half of our state is that about any body of water you look in will have a lot of them. Hopefully, they’re these guys, and not the invasive bullfrogs that destroy native waterways.

Rana chiricahuensis

Long Nosed Snake in the Trash

Bryan — Mon, 16 May 2011 15:17:30 +0000

After a long day of hiking a little over a year ago, we found a longnosed snake (Rhinocheilus lecontei) under some trash. It was about the happiest I’ve ever been to see a longnose!

longnosed garbage snake

Excuses, Excuses

Bryan — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 13:21:40 +0000

Here are 3 of the 50+ reasons in the last two weeks why I’ve been slow to respond to email, write on my blog, or eat anything not served in a bag.

C-c-cercobombus-1-041811

C-scutulatus0041611

C-atrox-041611

Following A Diamondback

Bryan — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 13:39:26 +0000

I went on a short afternoon hike today to see if I could find some diamondbacks, or at least work on my new boots a bit before my big trip to PA in 3 weeks. Within 15 minutes I found a skinny, female diamondback out sniffing through some brush, and was far enough away so that she hadn’t noticed me. Rather than get a photo and move on looking for more, I thought I’d just spend the sunset time following her to see what she does.

Here she is as found.

diamondback

She nosed around the bush for awhile, and eventually decided to move to the other side.

C-atrox-3-042011

… and after looking in and out of a few holes along the opposite side, she coiled up against the warm dirt wall, which is how I left her a few minutes later without so much as a tongue flick in my direction.

C-atrox-1-042011

Dark Mojave with a Stripe on the Neck

Bryan — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 13:34:42 +0000

So … I’ve really neglected my blog lately, and that’s all due to good things. I’ve been getting out and finding snakes as much as I can, and an evening at the computer just isn’t as appealing now as it is in the cooler months when I can’t imagine a billion snakes crawling around the desert for me to find. Still, I’ll try my best to put up some of the finds, but I’ll save the really good stuff for the end of the year.

Here’s one of dozens of Mojave rattlesnakes one can see out on the crawl in April, this one being a little darker and interesting looking than is typical for the Phoenix area.

Mojave

Baby Blacktail

Bryan — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 03:26:57 +0000

Here’s the smallest Blacktailed Rattlesnake I’ve ever seen … I see plenty of these guys, so I’m not quite sure why I never see babies. Cute little guy.

C-m-molossus-082910

ALL GLORY TO THE HYPNOTOAD

Bryan — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 17:20:30 +0000

BWERRRREEERRRRREEERRRRREERRRRREERRRRR

Don’t Play In The Road

Bryan — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 03:11:31 +0000

This is a closeup of a Blacktailed Rattlesnake, Crotalus molossus, from the Superstition mountains that had been clipped by a car. He had some problems with the mouth, as you can see in the photo, but may be ok.

I spend so much time looking for these guys that it’s amazing that people don’t see a bright yellow, 3.5′ animal as big around as a coke can laying in the middle of the road. I realize that quite often hitting a rattlesnake is the intentional act of the cowardly miniscule manhood crowd of the American Southwest, but sometimes it’s not. Birders are notorious for it … not that they mean to, but they’re looking UP and just miss whatever’s on the road. In the South East, there have been plenty of times I’m caught behind a binocular-faced duo in an economy car leaving writhing, dying reptiles in their wake. Just last May I found a nearly 7′ gophersnake crossing the road … just massive, brightly colored … impossible to miss. I stopped the car before they ran over it, and they said they were glad I did because they didn’t see it at all. Can’t blame them though … when I’m out looking for snakes I can’t say I’m looking in the trees.

Hope this guy is ok.

C-m-molossus

A Gravid, Young Diamondback

Bryan — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 19:28:43 +0000

We found this little lady one night in a wash, full of developing babies. It was a good candidate for some light HDR, being one of the many dozens of diamondbacks I’ve found and photographed in the year.

Western Diamondback Rattlesnake

One more of the little lady …

Crotalus atrox

Here’s another one found a ways off, a male, with milky pre-shed eyes.

Diamondback

First Wild Snake of 2011

Bryan — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 03:15:27 +0000

It’s not a rattlesnake, but I’m kind of glad … the first snake of the year for me has been a Western Diamondback for the last several years, so at least this is something different AND something new for me. This is a patch-nosed snake, a pretty common sight in the Spring daytime … but never before IN A TREE. Not sure what this little guy was doing up there, but it took some work to get a photo through the branches without disturbing him. I personally really like how this came out against the bright green treebark.

Patchnose!

Arizona Black Rattlesnake, Nice & Close

Bryan — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 02:56:28 +0000

AZ Black Rattlesnake in Arizona

Sonoran Coralsnake: The Only One I Saw in 2010

Bryan — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 17:05:27 +0000

Cruising around with a few friends in August, we lucked out. We had two vehicles making passes on a stretch of road looking for rattlesnakes, and on the way back I saw that the other car had stopped and they were photographing something. Turns out they had caught a nightsnake and were setting it up for some shots, and I wanted some too … so I pulled a U-turn to park and “HOLY SHIT A CORALSNAKE”! A few frantic seconds later and we caught him.

Very beautiful, very venomous, not too dangerous; the Sonoran Coralsnake, Micruroides euryxanthus:

Micruroides euryxanthus

Closer, you can see those tiny venom glands slightly swelling behind the eyes. It takes an act of extreme stupidity to actually get envenomated by these guys, who tend to fart as a primary defensive move. The Chihuahuan Hooknosed Snake will also fart in defense, and I have to say that their performance is more impressive than these little corals. The ‘cloacal popping’, as it is more nicely put, sounds like little armpit farts in the hooknosed snake, while the coral sounds more like someone walking across a freshly waxed floor in rubber shoes.

These are one of the very few Elapid species found in the United States. The Elapidae family is better known for its inclusion of Cobras, Sea Snakes, and Mambas, with whom these little coralsnakes have neurtoxic venom in common.

Anyone that’s tried to catch one of these, too, knows just how disorienting the pattern can be. They seem to move in an exaggerated S-pattern when trying to escape and will more or less disappear in front of your eyes, like a color wheel given a spin.

Sonoran Coralsnake

It was the only one I saw in 2010, and I really hope 2011 is better.

Quit Staring at me Frog!

Bryan — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 15:55:56 +0000

Mcdowell Mountains Tiger Rattlesnake

Bryan — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 13:42:05 +0000

Here’s a nice bluish tiger rattlesnake from the Mountains near Fountain Hills found with some friends one night. Look at that funny little head, haha. I have one of these that lives in an enclosure with a few speckled rattlesnakes, and the body-girth to head-size ratio between them puts their head pretty much at half the size of a normal rattlesnake head.

Also, while I’m thinking about it … the tiger rattlesnake was the very first species of rattlesnake I ever saw in Arizona, seen dead on a South Mountain trailside with my friend. It had been killed by a hiker, and the only reason I know it was a tiger at the time (this is before I really thought too much about rattlesnakes every day) because thinking back, my thought was “wow, what a weird little head”. Still little, still weird, and I still love seeing these guys out and about.

Here’s another one from just down the way of the above fellow. We would have walked right past him if he wasn’t buzzing up the side of the hill at the sight of us.

Watch Your Step 2

Bryan — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 13:32:15 +0000

If this Mojave (Crotalus scutulatus scutualtus) hadn’t buzzed me, I’d have never seen him as I walked by just a few feet away.

The Least Expected Rattlesnake Ever

Bryan — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 14:19:42 +0000

I was out cruising for snakes with my brother in August of 2010 in the sandy flats West of Phoenix and found something I never expected to. Where we were was the land of mojaves, sidewinders, and other flat-land loving sand surfers … quite far from the nearest rocky foothills where speckled rattlesnakes and blacktailed rattlesnakes can be found. Regardless, we found one! Even though it is plainly a C. molossus I was staring at, it was a situation where my brain wouldn’t let me believe it.

He’s missing the usual black eyescale that these guys have, and is a pretty standard desert-phase coloration. He was found crossing the road near a canal, so the best I can figure is that he was crawling between rock piles somewhere off on the horizon and got “stuck” against the uncrossable line, and had followed it here.

Interestingly enough, it’s not the first time I’d found a ‘mountains only’ kind of snake in this spot. The lyresnake (another snake that lives in the hills and mountains) in my collection was found less than a quarter mile from this spot. Strangeness.

Diamondback Rattlesnake Whoops

Bryan — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 15:11:15 +0000

This is a diamondback I’ve been watching for awhile, and successfully out of sight until this particular morning when he found me first. Lesson learned that day: just because a snake is sitting at the exact same place every day for a 14 days doesn’t mean he’ll be in the same spot for 15. Took a quick picture and left him alone, and have visited many times since.

Diamondback Rattlesnake

Here’s his ladyfriend/roomie out hunting early one morning. There are at least 4 different diamondbacks that I’ve seen that live in this one hole, and 14 total within a half mile that can be visited with regularity. The hole is within 20 feet of a popular walking trail, too, but from the tracks they leave it looks like they don’t go that direction. Good for passive hikers, good for the snakes.

Canyon Treefrog Playing Pebble

Bryan — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 17:40:35 +0000

You’re not fooling anyone, dude.

Black Tailed Rattlesnake from the Guadalupe Mountains in New Mexico

Bryan — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 15:44:46 +0000

I spent 3 weeks in Eddy County in 2010, as I’ve mentioned about a million times by this point, a good part of which were looking for this guy. It’s a Black Tailed Rattlesnake, Crotalus molossus molossus, and oh man … these guys are a lot harder to find out there than they are back home in Arizona (at least for me that is).

This is the same snake as I featured recently, sitting in a crack in a rock. We saw him there, and returned later to see him sitting out, and got some more photos. These are probably my favorites from the trip, and I must again say that this is my favorite species

Northern Black Tailed Rattlesnake

I can’t believe how awesome this snake is; blacktails make me pretty happy to be around. The latter half, as you can see, is more or less patternless, while the front half has a simplified pattern reduced to single yellow chevrons fully encased in that rich brown. It’s very different than what I’m used to here in Arizona, and I hope to visit this individual again next time I’m out that way.

I love this thing.

One More elegans … A Painted Desert Glossy Snake from Hudspeth County, Texas

Bryan — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 17:38:12 +0000

Between the desert glossysnake and Kansas variety I posted last week, I found this Painted Desert glossysnake in the North Western extreme of Texas out and about at 52F … cold enough that I wasn’t comfortable with a long photo session. These snakes can be incredibly colorful, and this is a good example. Most of the ones I’ve seen are in extreme Eastern Arizona, and they look a little more light and pink than this guy, who’s much more orange and the outlines in the pattern quite distinct.

Painted Desert Glossy Snake

Glossy Snake

A Baby Glossy Snake

Bryan — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 17:31:15 +0000

Pretty little thing … a tiny Glossy Snake, Arizona elegans, out on the crawl what must be moments after leaving the egg.

Arizona elegans

While I’m on the subject, here’s another example of this species that I found in New Mexico in 2010 of the “Kansas” subspecies. This is a snake that even one of the snake books I own confuses with the somewhat similarly patterned Gophersnake, but some familiarity with glossies and there’s nothing about them that is the same in the least bit. Most of them have that wonderfully clean outlines to the dorsal spots, and they really can be quite beautiful out in the grasslands.

Arizona elegans

Baby Blacknecked Gartersnake Failing to Catch Tadpoles

Bryan — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 17:31:55 +0000

I watched this baby Black Necked Gartersnake, Thamnophis cyrtopsis, try and fail to catch tadpoles in this pool for about a half hour. I really wanted to get a photo of him eating his prey, but he just wasn’t very good at it, and my real goal of the trip were the area’s blacktailed rattlesnakes. In the photo, he’s resting after the latest failed attempt.

Roomies: Desert Tortoises and Rattlesnakes

Bryan — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 17:19:18 +0000

In a wash near my home this year, I focused on just a few individual diamondbacks. On one trip, I looked into a hole and found both a desert tortoise and a diamondback sitting there together! I got my camera out, stuck my head in the hole, and turned on the light. CH-CH-SHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! The diamondback flared up and retreated over the shell of the tortoise. I got some pics of the tortoise anyway, but they didn’t turn out well. I was pretty disappointed, thinking that wouldn’t be something I’d see again any time soon.

Fast forward 3 days, and in a different burrow, with a different tortoise and different snake, not even 50 yards away:

I returned to the area every day for the next couple of weeks (except a few lazy days). The tortoise was always there, but the diamondback moved on. Still … it’s not common you get a chance to make up a missed shot.

Big Black Lizards

Bryan — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 17:09:32 +0000

I see them all the time, but realized this year that I really have almost no photographs of our big desert Chuckwallas, Sauromalus ater. They’re big, relatively colorful (in some places) lizards that you can pretty much see anywhere one would hike in the Sonoran desert. Just look up to the rocky outcroppings and they’ll be standing watch or diving into crevices as you come by. I know that any hike in South Mountain Preserve in Phoenix should yield quite a few sightings without any work at all.

Here’s a big boy caught by my friend Diego in the Maricopa mountains. That guy can catch some lizards. He also nabbed a baby collared lizard that day, and that’s not easy.

Lifer: New Mexico Milksnake

Bryan — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 17:00:37 +0000

I found this New Mexico Milksnake, Lampropeltis triangulum celaenops, crossing a 5 lane highway in the middle of a dust storm, with temps in the low 50′s. Wow! That was the last thing I expected to find … and boy was I happy. My first milksnake, and it’s a good one. This fella came home with me.

Dust storms: New Mexico does them right. My first night there, winds were over 50 mph and dust stung my eyes … I still found snakes though.

Diamondbacks of Eddy County, New Mexico

Bryan — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 17:48:18 +0000

In the 3 weeks I spent herping the areas around Carlsbad, New Mexico, I found a good amount of Western Diamondbacks, Crotalus atrox. It’s usually the same in Arizona … I expected a greater number of Prairie Rattlesnakes to show up, but I only saw one the whole time I was there (though I did see 6 of them dead on the road as I was leaving the state). The diamondbacks were interesting though, in being generally different than the Arizonan snakes I am used to. They tended to be longer, skinnier, and dark.

Here’s a big old boy I found one evening just before the sun went over the Guadalupe mountains.

Here’s another one from a few years back. What a beautiful snake …

My parents live in Carlsbad, so even though I didn’t find everything on my list, I know I eventually will.

Yavapai County Blacktail

Bryan — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 16:11:06 +0000

Here’s one of a few blacktails I’ve been keeping track of in a mountain range North of Phoenix. These are, at this point I am safe to say, my favorite species of rattlesnake.

Sidewinders, Big and Small

Bryan — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 17:03:06 +0000

Well, big is relative. The first snake is about as large as most Sonoran sidewinders, Crotalus cerastes cercobombus, will ever get … about 2 feet long. The latter is brand new to this world, about as long as a dollar bill and can easily coil up on a quarter.

Tripod Shorthorned Lizard

Bryan — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 17:39:45 +0000

I found an old Greater Shorthorned Lizard, Phrynosoma hernandesi, with only three feet out running around in the Bradshaw mountains leaflitter. No snakes that day, but I was happy to come home with some pictures of one of my favorite lizards.

Here’s another one for the hell of it. This one is from the Santa Rita mountains just South of Tucson … just a little bitty baby.

Orange Creamcicle Speck

Bryan — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 17:06:56 +0000

Here’s a pretty, colorful Southwestern speckled rattlesnake, Crotalus mitchelli pyrrhus, from the mountains North of Wickenberg. Beautiful, but typical for this area.

Rosy Boa From the Bagdad, Arizona Area

Bryan — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 17:54:57 +0000

Here’s an old one from my little point and shoot I started out with of an injured rosy boa, Lichanura trivirgata, from an area North of Phoenix. The poort hing had been clipped by a car, but seemed to be ok outright. We took it home to take it to a vet, but it unfortunately died before we had a chance.

A Big Milipede

Bryan — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 17:51:50 +0000

This milipede was out cruising around a wash North of Phoenix on a cold, wet morning. Can any arthropologists out there help me out with the species?

Desert Tortoise

Bryan — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 17:49:15 +0000

Here’s a gopher tortoise, Gopherus agassizii, out one night in the McDowell mountains. He had a ladyfriend nearby, and wasn’t too happy with my party’s meddling.

Wandering Gartersnake

Bryan — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 17:08:22 +0000

Here’s a pretty rust-colored wandering gartersnake from the Payson, Arizona area a few years ago.

Neonate Gophersnake

Bryan — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 17:06:00 +0000

We found a bunch of these little guys crawling around the bushes on the South side of the Huachua mountains in Arizona one night. Cute little guys, and surprisingly large for snakes that must only be a few days or even hours old. This one was confused by the light and kept crawling up into the flowers and low branches to escape.

Diamondback Waiting in Ambush

Bryan — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 17:59:01 +0000

I found this diamondback in an area very close to my home, and visit him on a regular basis. There are also a few others that share this hole, and they all stay pretty close to home. This was just before sun up in early July, hence the blue-ish light. Obviously I didn’t disturb him, which is key to repeat visitation.

Unexpected Arizona Black Rattlesnake

Bryan — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 19:00:32 +0000

There’s an area very close to Phoenix where I have been herping for many years, and we found something I never ever expected to see there, an Arizona Black Rattlesnake, Crotalus cerberus.

This species is usually in the 4,000′ and above range, with lower records being about 3,000 or so. This one was at just over 2,300′, making it by far the lowest elevation I’ve ever seen one at, and definitely a rare treat for an area I would never expect to see one. It’s a cool looking snake as well.

Arizona Black Rattlesnake

Blue Eyed Speck

Bryan — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 17:13:50 +0000

Here’s one of the Southwestern Speckled Rattlesnakes, Crotalus mitchelli pyrrhus, from Yavapai County. In this location, they’re often this salmon pink and blue eyed combo, though the eyes aren’t truly blue … just grey, but look blue against the reddish background. Cool snakes.

Sidewinders sidewinding all over the place

Bryan — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 17:24:14 +0000

Here are a few of the 20 or so sidewinders easily found in an evening and about an hour of the next, as can be done nearly any Spring evening in much of Arizona.

Crotalus cerastes cercobombus

Sonoran Sidewinder

Sidewinding

cerastes

scoot scoot scoot

side winder in arizona

eyelashes

One of your horns is crooked

Bryan — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 17:12:15 +0000

For some reason, these sidewinders (Crotalus cerastes) just look cooler when found on sunbleached gravel.

My Favorite Species of Rattlesnake

Bryan — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 19:06:45 +0000

Here’s a really pretty desert phase Blacktailed Rattlesnake, Crotalus molossus, from a seldom herped area in Yavapai county. Every molossus I’ve seen in this area is a knock out, and this one is no exception. I was able to get in close for a photo and leave again without it waking up.

Blacktail

Here’s where he was sitting when found:

Crotalus molossus molossus

A Baby Coachwhip

Bryan — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 17:09:02 +0000

We found this little guy out basking in the middle of a road … not a smart way to start life kid.

Big Scorpion

Bryan — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 06:22:04 +0000

I see these mouse-sized scorpions all over the place in the Sonoran desertscrub. I always stop to play with them at least once.

Hadrarus arizonensis

The Largest Glossy Snake I’ve Ever Seen

Bryan — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 17:01:35 +0000

This Glossy Snake, Arizona elegans noctivaga, was especially large, maybe a third larger than the next closest individual. It was found in a relatively cool grassland, as well, out and about in the monsoons. This first photo should serve as comparison to the gophersnake-ish size of this beast.

Desert Lizards

Bryan — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 17:18:05 +0000

These are three very commonly seen lizards in the Sonoran scrublands, but couldn’t live more different livestyles than one another.

Western Banded Gecko

Greater Earless Lizard

Desert Horned Lizard

… and one more of that last guy, since he is awesome.

Phrynosoma platyrhinos

Desert Nightsnake, at Night. Surprise.

Bryan — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 17:40:43 +0000

Nightsnake

My First New Mexico Blacktail

Bryan — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 17:20:01 +0000

After a lot of searching … multiple weeks and hundreds of miles, I finally saw my first blacktailed rattlesnake, Crotalus molossus, in Eastern New Mexico.

Crotalus molossus

Mojave Rattlesnake From Near Wickenberg, Arizona

Bryan — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 17:27:12 +0000

mojave

Sunset Sidewinder

Bryan — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 17:02:31 +0000

Crotalus cerastes cercobombus

The sidewinders were out in force this night. We eventually just stopped pulling over for them, even though I had some out of state friends here to see them.

sonoran sidewinder

Sidewinder

Sonoran Coralsnake On The Crawl

Bryan — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 17:28:02 +0000

Here’s a sonoran coralsnake that I got some bad cell phone video of, out crawling around on a warm August night.

Red-Sided Gartersnake from near Eugene, Oregon

Bryan — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 20:16:21 +0000

This is a bit of an older picture, from my last trip to Oregon a few years ago. I went to walk around a field with my grandpa and we found this old red-sided gartersnake, who was likewise interested in us. He just sat in one spot with his head held high while I took a few pictures. This was also one of the largest gartersnakes I’ve ever seen.

Red Sided Gartersnake

Red Sided garter

Basking Springtime Sidewinder

Bryan — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 17:15:56 +0000

In April, my wife Kelly and I had a great night West of Phoenix, and found over 20 live snakes in just over 3 hours. This is the first of the evening, a Sonoran Sidewinder, Crotalus cerastes cercobombus, soaking in the sun before the evening activities begin. We had pulled off the road to catch and photograph a horned lizard, and I spotted this snake about 15 feet away from where we were taking pictures. That’s a good sign.

Crotalus cerastes cercobombus

Crotalus atrox

Bryan — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 06:54:16 +0000

Diamondback rattlesnake

Gravid Western Diamondback

Bryan — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 17:13:15 +0000

Here’s a gravid (pregnant) female Western Diamondback Rattlesnake, Crotalus atrox, found by some friends and I on a night hike in early August.

Western Diamondback

Diamondback Rattlesnakes of Yavapai County

Bryan — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 17:59:34 +0000

Here’s a nice big diamondback I found on one of my favorite drives through Yavapai County, Arizona.

Crotalus atrox

diamondback

Baby Blacktail in the New River Mountains

Bryan — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 17:41:32 +0000

I found this young Black-Tailed Rattlesnake, Crotalus molossus, in the New River mountains, in a pretty amazing spot that also is home to a good many Crotalus cerberus. This is also the youngest molossus I’ve ever seen in the wild. For only having two rattle segments, it was surprisingly large.

Crotalus molossus

Blacktail

… and you’ll have to endure my playing with HDR and the RAW format.

HDR version

Chihuahuan Hook-Nosed Snake

Bryan — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 00:39:30 +0000

Here’s my first Chihuahuan Hook-Nosed Snake, Gyalopion canum. I’ve only ever seen two, and I’m apparently lucky, as I know of a few guys that have been doing this a lot longer than me that have never seen one. They’re small fossorial snakes that, like the Sonoran Coralsnake, defends itself by scaring away predators with its scary farts. It sounds like some little kid making fart sounds in their armpit. Strange but true.

Master Farstman

Farter McFarterstein

Chihuahuan Hook-Nosed Snake

Diamondback in Yavapai County

Bryan — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 17:38:28 +0000

This is the one and only living Western Diamondback, Crotalus atrox, I’ve seen in a mountainous area of Yavapai county. Nothing striking, but still clean and attractive nonetheless.

Diamondback

Teenie Turtle

Bryan — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 17:24:58 +0000

Here’s a really tiny Sonora Mud Turtle, Kinosternon sonoriense, from a muddy cattle pond near the AZ/Mexico border.

Sonora Mud Turtle

Tiny Turtle

Turtle

Bright Orange Speckled Rattlesnake

Bryan — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 17:08:32 +0000

A Southwestern Speckled Rattlesnake, Crotalus mitchelli pyrrhus, from Maricopa county. The color is amazing, but not atypical for this species in this area.

Crotalus mitchelli pyrrhus

]

Speckled Rattlesnake

Tiger Rattlesnake from Santa Cruz County

Bryan — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 17:52:01 +0000

This is one of the more rarely seen rattlesnakes in Arizona, the Tiger Rattlesnake, Crotalus tigris. This is one of two I saw in 2009 in the South East of the state, this one being near Nogales, only a few miles form the border of Mexico. While we were photographing this guy, a border patrol helicoptor swooped down and gave us a really good look before heading off again … a pretty common thing to happen down there.

This snake’s color, in real life, is incredible. Looking at it, you can’t tell if it’s pink, green, white, or a mix of all. They seem to have almost translucent scales, solid grey with undertones shining through in all colors at once. This one came home with me.

Crotalus tigris

Tiger Rattlesnake

Tiger

Western Diamondbacks near Congress, Arizona

Bryan — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 17:52:25 +0000

We found this guy on the crawl mid-morning on an overcast, warm day in April.

Crotalus atrox

… about an hour and a half later, we found another one on the move near a river. He posed nicely for us.

Diamondback Rattlesnake in Yavapai County, Arizona

Crotalus atrox

We also found this moth hanging out near the water’s edge.

moth

Teenage Muddy Biting Turtle

Bryan — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 17:40:22 +0000

This little dude didn’t like being captured. Fingers were nearly pinched.

nom

Early Morning atrox

Bryan — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 17:33:48 +0000

Here’s a Western Diamondback Rattlesnake on the move just after sunup in April, 2010. The air temperature was just over 60 degrees.

atrox

diamondback rattlesnake

Mojave Rattlesnakes in the Western Maricopa County Flats

Bryan — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 17:09:34 +0000

Second only to the sidewinder in encounters, the mojave rattlesnake, Crotalus scutulatus, is all over the place in the springtime in the flats of Western Maricopa county. Here are a couple of typical specimens.

Crotalus scutulatus

C-scutulatus-2-041510

C-scutulatus-3-041510

Sidewinder

Bryan — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 06:13:33 +0000

sidewinder

My First Ridge-Nosed Rattlesnake from 2007

Bryan — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 00:34:27 +0000

This was unfortunate … the first Arizona Ridge-Nosed Rattlesnake, Crotalus willardi, I ever saw was just hit by a car and slowly dying. I took a bad photo of the undamaged end and left it to let things run their course.

Crotalus willardi

Western Diamondback Rattlesnake

Bryan — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 05:57:47 +0000

Here’s yet another pretty typical-looking Western Diamondback Rattlesnake, Crotalus atrox, out and about in the Spring.

diamondback

Western Banded Gecko

Bryan — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 00:29:04 +0000

We woke up a Western Banded Gecko, Coleonyx variegatus, for some photos with the Spring flowers in the White Tank mountains. He’s obviously not too happy to for the unnatural photos of a nocturnal lizard out in the bright light. It looks nice, but we both know better.

Coleonyx variegatus

Here are a couple more I found with my friend Diego a week later under some dumped plastic.

Western Banded Gecko

A Black & Gold Mountain-Phase Blacktail

Bryan — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 20:06:28 +0000

Here’s a beautiful blacktailed rattlesnake, Crotalus molossus, we found near the Mexican border with Arizona. The lichen-covered rocks made a really cool background.

molossus

Blacktail

Crotalus molossus

blacktail

molossus

Urban Mojave Rattlesnake

Bryan — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 23:24:19 +0000

Kelly and I went for a little walk with our friend Jeff into a wash WELL within the city limits of … Peoria or Surprise, or whatever old people haven it was. This mojave rattlesnake, Crotalus scutulatus, was nice enough to pose for some shots against the sunset over the White Tank mountains. If they knew what was in the drainages near their homes, there’d definitely be some dirty depends.

Crotalus scutulatus

The One and Only Banded Rock Rattlesnake of 2009

Bryan — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 20:01:07 +0000

I really didn’t spend any time looking for lepidus in 2009. I went on a half hearted hike in the worst part of June, just being in the area for a different reason, and then looked again one morning later in the year. My friend Kris found this cool-looking little guy out on the crawl and I got some pictures of it. I love how they look in this area.

Crotalus lepidus klauberi

klauberoonie

rock rattlesnake

klauberi

Great Plains Toad, Bufo cognatus

Bryan — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 20:19:31 +0000

This is a little tiny toad, new to the world of legs.

Bufo cognatus

Hiking the Agua Fria River

Bryan — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 17:16:47 +0000

I had some friends in town to find rattlesnakes in April, and one of the locations we hit was the Agua Fria river. The various small canyons and rock cuts, along with the year-round supply of water, make a great habitat for all kinds of desert animals. We found 3 rattlesnakes this particular morning, and a variety of other cool stuff.

Here are a trio of diamondbacks found along the way:

Diamondbacks

diamondback

atrox

diamondback

Here are a couple of the many canyon treefrogs we saw as well.

Frog

canyon treefrog

… and some indian art on a rock, right near where we parked.

art

Here’s about the scariest thing you can find in Arizona, an open nest of bees. Fortunately, these guys usually make enough noise so that you can see them well before you piss them off.

bees

And finally, a patchnosed snake we found on the way out to our next location.

Patch-Nosed Snake

Sonoran Whipsnake in the Chiricahua Mountains

Bryan — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 05:18:37 +0000

SONORAN WHIPSNAKE Coluber bilineatus

whipsnake in arizona

Sonoran Whip Snake

Western Shovel-Nosed Snake

Bryan — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 01:08:32 +0000

Here’s one of two Western Shovel-Nosed Snakes, Chionactis occipitalis, from the intergrade zone, where three subspecies interbreed and any individual may show signs of two or more. Small snakes that dig around in the sandy soil looking for centipedes and other bugs.

Shovelnose Snake

A Night in the Superstition Mountains. Diamondback, Blacktails, and a Lyresnake

Bryan — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 03:00:47 +0000

My wife and I went on a quick trip to the Superstition Mountains and had a little success. We spent maybe the most productive hiking hour at Tortilla Flats eating hamburgers, which had to be done eventually. I’ve driven past the place more times than I can count, but I’ve always been on my way somewhere … so we stopped and it was well worth it. We got out in time to get to our location for a quick 30 minute hike before it was time to cruise, and it paid off immediately. Only a hundred yards into our hike we found a large Blacktail Rattlesnake, Crotalus molossus, cruising through a dry wash. It was my wife’s first blacktail, so we spent a lot of time with it and took a lot of pictures.

Crotalus molossus

blacktail rattlesnake

rattlesnake in the superstition moutains

black tail rattlesnake

molossus

We got back to our car just before dark and found this baby Western Diamondback Rattlesnake, Crotalus atrox, right away. We didn’t take too much care with the pics on this one. Photographed and moved off the road.

Crotalus atrox

Then we found one of my favorite Colubrids, the Sonoran Lyresnake, Trimorphodon lambda. He had kind of a jacked up lower jaw as if he had swallowed part of it, but it looked to be healing, and it had some food in the belly, so it looks like he’ll be fine.

lyresnake

Trimorphodon lambda

popeye face

Sonoran Lyresnake in Arizona

On the way out, we found the last thing I expected, a Couch’s Spadefoot Toad. These are pretty common during the monsoons in the flats, but we were still well within the foothills when we found him. Weird.

Couch's Toad

Crotalus willardi

Bryan — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 03:15:19 +0000

Another Ridge-Nosed Rattlesnake in Arizona from 2008.

Crotalus willardi

ridgenose

rattlesnake in arizona

Desert Nightsnake

Bryan — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 00:45:12 +0000

Hypsiglena chlorophaea

A Typical Long-Nosed Snake

Bryan — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 04:00:40 +0000

Here’s a typical Long-Nosed Snake, Rhinocheilus lecontei, out and about. I see a billion of these every year and photograph very few of them. If they’d hold still for a few seconds I’d take a lot more pictures of them. Regardless, I always photograph maybe 20 a year.

Longnose

My First lepidus

Bryan — Fri, 21 May 2010 11:17:47 +0000

I was looking through old stuff today and found a photo of my very first ever Banded Rock Rattlesnake, Crotalus lepidus klauberi. I’ve only seen 3 at night, this being the first. I love these snakes.

Crotalus lepidus klauberi

I Keep Promising Myself I Won’t Photograph These Anymore

Bryan — Tue, 18 May 2010 02:00:02 +0000

… but it never works out. On about every trip I take a colorful Common Side-Blotched Lizard ends up on my CF card. As the name implies, these guys are about everywhere you look on warm mornings.

Uta

Amblypigid, Meet My Nightsnake

Bryan — Fri, 14 May 2010 11:00:01 +0000

Big creepy arachnid:

Amblypigids

Big creepy arachnid with a nightsnake:

desert dance party 3000

R.I.P. My Hat

Bryan — Sat, 08 May 2010 01:31:08 +0000

My hat took one for the team for the last time. He lived a rich life, on top of my head, soaking up sweat and keeping my forehead burn-free. He is survived by my hook and loving camerabag.

SO Sad

Mojave

Bryan — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 01:28:04 +0000

Crotalus scutulatus

Stop! Gila Monster!

Bryan — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 01:00:49 +0000

I’ve heard that yelled a total of 5 times in my life, twice to myself, by myself. In 2009 I found 4 gila monsters, and all were hard to photograph. These guys are protected, and you can’t bother them in any way. You pretty much have to get your ass out of the car and snap away what you can before it disappears to wherever it’s going, so obviously this can be a little tough. Luckily, at least they’re slug-slow. I managed to get a couple before he took off for good over an embankment.

Gila Monster

There goes Tokyo.

Hatchling Zebra-Tailed Lizard

Bryan — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 01:18:30 +0000

We found this baby zebra tailed lizard catching the last bit of sun one evening right in the middle of Surprise, AZ. These are one of my favorite lizards, and he sat nice and still for a picture.

Zebra Tailed Lizard

Sonoran Collared Lizard – My First

Bryan — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 01:24:17 +0000

In March, Diego put his lizard catching skills to use on this small female Sonoran Collared Lizard, Crotaphytus nebruis, in the Maricopa Mountains of Arizona. It took some work, but she eventually calmed down for some photos.

Sonoran Collared Lizard

How Many Canyon Treefrogs Can You See?

Bryan — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 03:00:25 +0000

canyon treefrogs

Email me and I’ll tell you if you’re right.

The First Snake of 2010 – A Western Diamondback Rattlesnake

Bryan — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 01:07:04 +0000

I found a Western Diamondback Rattlesnake, Crotalus atrox, a couple of miles from my home in Anthem, Arizona. We’ve had a rather wet year, so temperatures have remained cool and I haven’t seen as much in the early part of the year as I did in 2009, but this year will be a killer! Lots of moisture means lots of snakes, and Spring is looking good.

Diamondback Rattlesnake in Arizona

C. atrox

A Young Ridge-Nosed Rattlesnake in Arizona

Bryan — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 04:00:53 +0000

The Ridge-Nosed Rattlesnake, Crotalus willardi, is probably the most sought-after rattlesnake in the country. They’re small and hard to find unless you know what you’re doing, which I officially don’t. I’ve seen less than 10 total. They’re awesome little snakes with a look that seems surprising they’d be in the US at all, with their lance shaped head and high-contrast white facial markings. I didn’t see one at all in 2009 (though I only looked once, to be fair), and I’ll have to fix that in 2010.

Crotalus willardi

Ridgenose in Arizona

ridge nosed rattlesnake in az

An Exceptionally Green C. lepidus

Bryan — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 05:31:13 +0000

My wife and I found this extremely green Crotalus lepidus klauberi right at noon in the Huachuca mountains. It’s also the largest klaub I’ve ever seen. I still have yet to get back to this particular pile of rocks to look for more like him … maybe next year.

lepidus

klauberi

A Western Banded Gecko, The Most Squished Animal on Earth

Bryan — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 05:00:00 +0000

These little geckos are all over the roads most of the year and it’s easy to forget how cool they are and get out of the car to chase them around to get some pictures. This is a Western Banded Gecko, Coleonyx variegatus, one of the only geckos with eyelids. Their skin is covered with tiny round scales and feels so soft it’s hard to tell where the air ends and the lizard begins. As the title also implies, they’re probably the number one smashed critter on Arizona highways in the summer.

gecko in arizona

Book Review: A Guide to the Rock Rattlesnakes of The United States

Bryan — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 23:26:13 +0000

I’m planning a month-long trip to New Mexico this Spring, and the release of this book couldn’t have been timed better. A Guide to the Rock Rattlesnakes of the United Snakes, by Michael Price, got here a few days ago and I’m glad I bought it.

First, this is, as Mr. Price put it, “intended to be a ‘science’ book”, and that it isn’t. The majority of the book is photography by the author and a few other field herpers, sprinkled with a couple pages of text here and there that more or less give some context to the next grouping of photos. Though lean on the science, what is there can be pretty useful. The phenotype information is about as detailed as the book gets, but this is very useful when combined with the maps, habitat shots, and various shots of lepidus from different mountain ranges.

The real stand-outs are the animals, of which Michael Price has done a great job showing off the amazing variation of the species. The photography is very good, though I do wish there were a few more scenic shots of the animals in their environments. The part that is personally most useful are the habitat shots. Each mountain range is a little different, and it takes some work to find that sweet spot where everything is just right for snakes. I even recognized one rock photographed in the Guadalupe Mountains, where every time I drive by, makes me think “I bet that place is crawling with leps.”. Now I know for sure it is, and this will be one of the first places I visit on my trip.

All in all I think it’s a great book to have if you’re a lepidus lover, but not the best if you have a more casual view of them. While pages and pages of pictures of different rock rattlesnakes is very interesting to field herpers, it might not be the best way to spend $25 if you don’t actually plan on someday visiting all of these.

A Guide to the Rock Rattlesnakes of the United States is available on Amazon.com, and in the bookstore on this site.

A Guide to Rock Rattlesnakes of the United States

2 Klaubs from the Huachuca Mountains

Bryan — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 05:27:18 +0000

A few old pics of pretty standard looking Crotalus lepidus klauberi from the Huachuca range in Arizona.

lep

klaub

lep

Big Fat Tiger Rattlesnake in the Superstition Mountains

Bryan — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 05:00:21 +0000

This is the second live Tiger Rattlesnake, Crotalus tigris, I ever found in Arizona. I was a moron and forgot to load up my headlamp and camera with new batteries, so had to do a bit of a shuffle to get him to hold still while I got my crap together. These snakes are awesome and the first few I found just looked so weird to me with their tiny heads and fat bodies. True specialists.

Crotalus tigris

A Trio of Mojave Rattlesnakes

Bryan — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 03:00:38 +0000

Here are 3 typical-looking Mojave Rattlesnakes, Crotalus scutulatus, in Arizona. This is one of the more common snakes I encounter in the wet months of the year.

rattlesnake in az

Crotalus scutulatus

rattlesnakes in az

One Pissed Off Rattlesnake

Bryan — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 03:00:22 +0000

I was out on the last day in August with my good herping friend Kris Haas dodging flash floods and racking up the snakes when we found a neonate Mojave Rattlesnake, Crotalus scutulatus, making his way across the road. I slammed on the brakes, dropped my window, and sent us backwards to confirm the snake and park for photos. Before I was able to turn off the car we could hear the familiar “ssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhchchchc” way off into the desert to our right; it was another snake. We couldn’t believe it, by the sound of it the snake was qay off in the distance, and it seemed unlikely it could possibly be rattling at us at this distance. Kris went off to catch the little guy, and I went off into the bushes to find the noisy guy.

He was easy to find; I just followed the sound. He was under a tree a good 100′ or more from where we first heard him inside the truck with the engine running. Crazy luck.

Here’s the little guy, followed by the angry noise maker.

Crotalus scutulatus

Pissed Off Rattlesnake

Watch Your Step

Bryan — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 03:00:24 +0000

A young Mojave Rattlesnake, Crotalus scutulatus, hiding in the grass in Southern Arizona. If there were any snake in Arizona that I would step on if I had to, this species would not be it.

Mojave Rattlesnake

A Big Great Basin Rattlesnake from Bonneville County, Idaho

Bryan — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 03:00:25 +0000

Here’s a rarity for this website and me in general, a rattlesnake found far from Arizona. I went up to my 10 year highschool reunion in 2007, but ended up spending most of my time in the hills surrounding my hometown armed with a lot more knowledge about how to find the local rattlesnakes. This one was as big as any rattlesnake I’ve ever seen in Arizona, and extremely aggressive towards me. It’s a Great Basin Rattlesnake, Crotalus oreganus lutosus, which can be found in Arizona as well, though I have not yet gone looking for them. I found a few others in my time up there, and I’ll post those at another time. My camera gear and photographic skill were both severely lacking at the time, so it’s hard to get over myself on some really unfortunate missed shots.

Great Basin Rattlesnake in Idaho

A Typical Desert-Phase Blacktailed Rattlesnake from Arizona’s Superstition Mountains

Bryan — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 04:50:58 +0000

This subadult Black-Tailed Rattlesnake, Crotalus molossus, is the typical low-contrast brown seen in the Sonoran desertscrub areas of most of Arizona. In many areas this can take a green, orange, or even pinkish tint, but this one is pretty straight brown. Nonetheless, their pattern is one of the best looking, in my opinion, of the large-bodied rattlesnakes in Arizona, and their calm attitude is always welcome, except for being a bit difficult to photograph as they continually try to slide away without a fight.

blacktail rattlesnake in Arizona

A Pair of Sidewinders

Bryan — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 04:47:18 +0000

In late April and early May, I can’t even say how many times I’ve found a sidewinder while another snake is mid-capture. This one was a little different in that they were right on top of eachother. I’m unable to sight-sex this species, so I can’t say whether it was mating behavior or just coincidental sharing of a warm spot in the side-road gravel, but 2 snakes at once is definitely a cool find.

sidewinder in arizona

Near-Perfect Camouflaged Sidewinder

Bryan — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 04:42:02 +0000

Here’s another great example of the sneaky camouflage capabilities of one of the most commonly seen rattlesnakes in the sandy desertscrub, the Sonoran Sidewinder, Crotalus cerastes cercobombus. I found probably 200 of these guys in 2009 alone, and still stop for almost every one. Most of the pictures just go into my collection and never make it here, and I hope my interest in finding them never leaves me.

sidewinder rattlesnake

sidewinder from Arizona

A Clean Cochise County Diamondback

Bryan — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 04:39:00 +0000

Nothing particularly special about this female Western Diamondback Rattlesnake, Crotalus atrox, but I liked how clean the pattern is. Especially when compared to the dirty, speckled coloration of the atrox near my home, this one looks very nice.

Rattlesnake in Arizona

A Rare Glossy Snake Sighting

Bryan — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 19:33:46 +0000

In 2009 I only saw 3 Desert Glossy Snakes, Arizona elegans eburnata. From a distance or at speed they look superficially like gophersnakes, but that long nose and almost rat-snake looking face makes for a good find. They’re really cool snakes, and I really wish I found more of them. Every one so far looks a little different.

Desert Glossy Snake in Arizona

A Snake in Arizona

Black-Necked Gartersnakes

Bryan — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 03:00:33 +0000

In 2009, for some reason, I found more black-necked garternskaes, Thamnophis cyrtopsis, than I’ve seen in all years previous combined. Most were in predictable locations, but a few were the last thing I thought I’d find, being several miles from the nearest reliable source of water.

Here are a few.

Gartersnake in Arizona

Blacknecked Gartersnake

Thamnophis cyrtopsis

Garter Snake

Garter Snake in Arizona

There is a snake in there; can you see it?

Sonoran Gophersnakes

Bryan — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 03:47:25 +0000

Here are a few of the Sonoran Gophersnakes, Pituophis catenifer affinis, I found during a few days of August in 2009. This is one of the most common snakes we have in Arizona, and I see them quite often. I have two in my collection as well, which were both called in to the AHA hotline as rattlesnakes. They’re pretty entertaining when you find them, as they put on a really good show most of the time. In fact, I’m still digging teeth out of my left index finger from one of them.

Gophersnake

Sneaky

I'm grass too!

Pituophis catenifer affinis

I bite you!

Pituophis

A big one

P-c-affinis-6-081609

Chihuahuan Nightsnake

Bryan — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 06:43:35 +0000

Here’s a neonate Chihuahuan nightsnake, Hypsiglena jani, a mildly venomous snake with eliptical pupils that is pretty common. A few years ago these were all just nightsnakes, but were split into three separate species. So … I guess this is a lifer for me, unless you count the probable jani I found near Payson awhile back. Whatever.

Chihuahuan nightsnake

High Altitude Lizard

Bryan — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 03:36:34 +0000

I was laying on my back in wet leaves high in the Chiricuahua mountains, hat over my eyes, taking a little break, when I heard some noise to my left. There was a Madrean Alligator Lizard, Elgaria kingii, cruising around looking for bugs. I used to catch similar lizards as a kid in Oregon, and I always like seeing one of these. I found quite a few in 2009, in fact, many more than in previous years.

Elgaria kingii

Some Mojave Rattlesnakes from Eastern Arizona / Western New Mexico

Bryan — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 06:26:46 +0000

Here are a few of the many mojave rattlesnakes, Crotalus scutulatus, I found in a 3 day period in August, 2009. The species has an incredible amount of variation throughout its range, and these individuals are no exception. The 4 hour drive to this location shows quite a bit of difference between the light greenish scutulatus I see around Phoenix.

It’s also worth mentioning that the scutulatus from Cochise county have more toxic venom than they would elsewhere. I am not sure why this is, but I’m as careful as ever when handling these guys.

Neonate

Crotalus scutulatus

A pissy morning scutulatus

Mojave Rattlesnake

Another bad morning

Friendly

My First Twin-Spotted Rattlesnake

Bryan — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 06:21:06 +0000

The twin-spotted rattlesnake, Crotalus pricei, was the last of the 3 small montaine species of rattlesnake I have found. I’ve heard they are relatively easy to find if you’re in the right area, and I knew the right area, so I wasn’t in a particular hurry to find one. The day finally came and I decided to try for one. It wasn’t too long before I found it either, buzzing away below me. One more for the life list!

Crotalus pricei

Twin Spot

Twin Spotted Rattle Snake

I did come back the next day with my sister to find one, but only put in half an ass worth of effort. I did see one, but it made it down into the rocks before I could get to it. Oh well.

Black-Tailed Rattlesnake from the Chiricuahua Mountains

Bryan — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 06:13:51 +0000

I found this Black-Tailed Rattlesnake, Crotalus molossus, while hiking along a streambed with my sister in August of 2009. It was the first she had seen, unless you count the unfortunate roadkill we found near Douglass the night before. I love this species; it completely made our afternoon to find this guy.

Crotalus molossus

Blacktail Rattlesnake

Crotalus molossus

Rattlesnake

A Beautiful Arizona Black Rattlesnake

Bryan — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 15:35:24 +0000

My friend Diego had never seen an Arizona Black Rattlesnake, Crotalus cerberus, before. I’d only seen a handful myself, and my position just North of Phoenix puts me in a good place to see a lot of them, if I’d just get up there and try it out. We decided to meet up and try a new spot and see what happens. What happened were 4 cerberus in about an hour and a half!

When we first got there, we decided to hike a running creek to see what was out. All we found were Canyon Treefrogs, Hyla arenicolor, and a few thousand crawfish.

Canyon Treefrog

Hyla arenicolor

Then we waited for dark. Almost immediately after we started our new search, we found an absolutely amazing-looking male cerberus on the move. We both flipped out. It can’t get any darker than this. Although there is some pattern shown in the photograph, I’ve since seen this snake become pitch-black without a trace of pattern whatsoever. This one came home with me, and is sleeping in an enclosure 5 feet behind me as I type this.

Arizona Black Rattlesnake

Here’s a crappy picture of Diego playing “Try not to lose any fingers”.

Diego with cerb

About 5 minutes later, we found a second cerberus. This one was a little more typical-looking, with cream colored bands and various other chocolate hues crossing the body.

Crotalus cerberus

AZ Black Rattlesnake

Another cool looking black rattlesnake

We found 2 more within the next hour, only one of which we photographed due to, uh, technical difficulties. The only 4 snakes we found that night were the ones we were looking for, which is a pretty cool night as far as we were concerned. Crotalus cerberus is quickly becoming one of my favorite Arizona snake.

Crotalus cerberus

Black Rattler

Finding the Hopi Rattlesnake, Part 5

Bryan — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 04:29:21 +0000

Continued from part 1, part 2, part 3 & part 4.

Final pictures of the series, the first Hopi Rattlesnakes, Crotalus viridis viridis, formally Crotalus viridis nuntius, found by Kelly and myself in the summer of 2009.

Crotalus viridis

C. viridis viridis

Hopi Rattlesnake

Are You Threatening Me?

Bryan — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 03:26:28 +0000

I respect lizards. Unlike cowardly snakes that try and escape immediately upon discovery, many lizards will go just a few feet and turn around to engage me in the most terrifying aspect of their being: pushups. Oh the humanity.

Here’s a Plateau Fence Lizard, Sceloporous tristichus, upon being discovered.

Plateau Fence Lizard

… and then, halfway around the tree, an attempt to scare me away. It worked; I left.

Ahhhhhhh!!!!

Whoops

Bryan — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 05:27:40 +0000

I win

My First Desert Patchnose Snake

Bryan — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 06:34:31 +0000

Here’s the first Desert Patchnose Snake (Salvadora hexalepis hexalepis) I encountered in the wild from several years ago. He appropriately bit the hell out of my finger and escaped up a sheer dirt wall before I could get any better photos. I love these guys; they’re like mini-coachwhips.

Salvadora hexalepis

Round-Tailed Horned Lizards

Bryan — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 06:15:45 +0000

Here are a few pictures of one of my favorite Arizona-native lizards, the Round-Tailed Horned Lizard (Phrynosoma modestum). They always look so damn serious, which is even funnier when you meet one in person.

Sorry for the poor photos … these were taken quite awhile ago before I had decided to get into this as a full-on nerd activity.

Yoda

Little dude

Two Toads

Bryan — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 18:34:46 +0000

Here are a couple of common toads found in abundance when the rain finally comes to the Arizona summer.

This first is a large Red-Spotted Toad, Bufo punctatus, found while looking for hopi rattlesnakes in Central Arizona.

The latter is a young Sonoran Desert Toad, Bufo alvarius, found with a 97 F air temperature and near zero humidity.

Bufo punctatus

Sonoran Desert Toad

Finding the Hopi Rattlesnake, Part 4

Bryan — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 04:24:35 +0000

Continued from part 1, part 2 and part 3

Hopi Rattlesnake, Crotalus viridis.

Hopi Rattlesnake

Crotalus viridis viridis

A Young Black-Tailed Rattlesnake

Bryan — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 20:20:00 +0000

Here is the youngest, smallest Black-Tailed Rattlesnake (Crotalus molossus) I have ever seen. It was found North of my home in Anthem, Arizona, in a place where I had previously not seen this species. It’s a great looking snake for this area.

Crotalus molossus

Black-Tailed Rattlesnake

… and an HDR for the hell of it.

HDR Blacktail

Sonoran Whipsnake

Bryan — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 07:42:59 +0000

Sonoran whipsnakes (Coluber bilineatus) are cool. They’re smart, fast, diurnal snakes that are difficult to photograph simply because it’s hard to get close enough to the things to do it without them instantly disappearing into the brush … and if you do actually manage to get your hands on one, you’re going to be bleeding from the multiple bites it will deliver, without fail.

That is, of course, unless they’re babies Then they can bite all they want, and it doesn’t matter. Here are a couple I found this year.

Coluber bilineatus

Soniran Whipsnake

Sonoran Whipsnake, Coluber bilineatus

Coluber bilineatus

… just to illustrate:

The joys of herping. (pic by Kris Haas)

Great Plains Toad

Bryan — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 03:32:24 +0000

My sister and I found this Great Plains Toad, Bufo cognatus, out on the road near Douglas, Arizona in the summer of 2009. We had a hard time keeping him from jumping right back into traffic. Not the smartest critters around …

Toad in Arizona

Rainy Day in Western New Mexico

Bryan — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 17:57:48 +0000

In August I spent a few days in extreme Western New Mexico, and found a total of 86 snakes … pretty good times. I was to meet my sister for a couple days to see how many diamondbacks and mojaves we could find in as short a time as possible, and I had a day to kill in the meantime. Temperatures were far from optimal, but that didn’t stop the animals. It ended up being an interesting day, full of lots of rain, wet equipment (and clothes), and lots and lots of mud.

In the early morning I photographed several snakes out in a cold lightning storm. I have to say, taking pictures of a big pissed off diamondback while lightning strikes all around is a great way to get the blood pumping. (a few of these will reappear in another post in a special about C. atrox variation).

Crotalus atrox

Crotalus scutulatus

Some vultures …

vulture

vultures

… and while I’m posting birds:

falcon

Here’s another Mojave Rattlesnake:

Crotalus scutulatus

… and another.

Crotalus scutulatus

Back into New Mexico, I found several Ornate Box Turtles out in the rain.

Ornate Box Turtle

Ornate Box Turble in New Mexico

Ornate Box Turtle

In the evening, I found a tarantula hawk wasp the size of an adult mouse dragging a paralyzed, but still living, tarantula to a nest.

Tarantula hawk

Finally the rain cleared, but I decided to call it an early night, after a long, long day of not seeing a whole lot. The last snake I had seen was at about 10am, and the day was an adventure of car issues in the middle of nowhere, hiding from monster storms, and dodging flash floods. I got one last shot of the Animas mountains of New Mexico, opposite of the sunset, as the last of the hail clouds broke up to a chilly night sky.

New Mexico

Happy Halloween!

Finding Hopi Rattlesnakes, Part 3

Bryan — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 04:20:22 +0000

Continued from part 1. and part 2

More Hopi Rattlesnakes, Crotalus viridis, from North Central Arizona.

C. viridis

Hopi Rattlesnake

Camouflage Fail

Bryan — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 03:18:28 +0000

I watched this Canyon Treefrog, Hyla arenicolor, crawl out of a stream and climb a rock to do as they do, and take on the approximate color of the rock for an afternoon snooze. It takes awhile to take effect, it seems, as this little guy was not at all hidden at first. I set up on a rock and had lunch while I watched it gradually get darker and darker, but left before the change was complete.

Hyla arenicolor

Eastern Collared Lizard, My First

Bryan — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 21:23:04 +0000

For as much time as I spend out looking for reptiles, it’s always surprised me that I’ve never seen an Eastern Collared Lizard, Crotaphytus collaris. They’re big, brightly-colored, and fairly common in many of the areas I spend time. I was finally able to photography my first recently. Another one on the life list.

Something very interesting I learned after showing off the find to some other field herpers with more experience with this species, is that they have a rather inefficient way of keeping alive as young lizards.

Eastern Collared Lizards are cannibals. Adult males will eat young lizards on sight, but spare gravid (pregnant) females. Obviously eating females loaded with eggs would not work out too well for the species, so females give warning of their status by displaying bright orange lizards. Young males, in turn, display orange coloration in order to mimic females of the same species, to avoid predation by … the same species. To me, this is right up there with the flounder in adaptations that show just how unintelligent natural design is.

Eastern Collared Lizard

Crotaphytus collaris

Busy Body Tiger Whiptail

Bryan — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 19:20:30 +0000

This big Tiger Whiptail, Aspidoscelis tigris, was foraging for food in the mesquite roots while Kelly and I watched. I’ve always thought whiptails are a bit entertaining, as they always seem to be extremely busy doing whatever they’re doing, and just can’t be bothered to run away. Not now, not while there are bills to pay and bugs to catch.

Tiger Whiptail

Elegant Earless Lizard

Bryan — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 21:02:55 +0000

An adult Elegant Earless Lizard, Holbrookia elegans, from Santa Cruz County, Arizona.

Elegant Earless Lizard

Diamondbacks, Big & Small

Bryan — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 05:44:23 +0000

Here are a couple of Western Diamondback rattlesnakes we found out cruising around after dark; the objectives of both are quite different, I am sure.

This first is a fairly typical-looking Western Diamondback Rattlesnake (Crotalus atrox). The atrox I see in this area of Arizona tend to be a little more colorful than the dirt-grey variety I often encounter up near Phoenix.

Diamondback Rattlesnake from Arizona

Here’s another that was found less than 100 feet away, about 20 minutes later. It’s a neonate atrox that’s maybe a few weeks old.

Baby rattlesnake

Notice the button on the tail. A common myth is that baby rattlesnakes are born without rattles; this is absolutely false. This snake cannot yet rattle of course, since it takes at least 2 segments of rattle to make any sound at all.

Another myth is that baby rattlesnakes are somehow more deadly than the adults. I’ve heard lots of reasons … more potent venom, unable to control their release, etc; these must be taken with a bit of understanding and relation. I have observed that a greater proportion of young snakes are aggressive right out of the gate. I assume this is to do with the poor little things being only a few inches long and on the menu for just about everything in the desert. As for their venom being more dangerous … young diamondbacks can have more potent venom (The Venomous Reptiles of Arizona, Low / Schwalbe / Johnson). Although it is possibly more deadly drop-for-drop, a young atrox is not able to inject the same amount of venom as an adult. I see all over the place (including the CDC website, until earlier this year) that babies are more dangerous because they cannot control their venom yield. Everything a pencil-sized snake has just doesn’t compare to the danger posed by even a fraction of a large adult. It also has a smaller mouth, fang-size, and strike range. There are several factors to consider to gauge the overall danger a snake poses; not just venom. The point: leave rattlesnakes of ALL sizes alone and head the other way. Your uncle/neighbor/co-worker might be right about a lot of things, but he’s wrong on this one.

baby rattlesnake

These tiny babies are out in force of many species at this time, and are pretty easily found as they wander around without an established home range. Cute little things.

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Crazy Prairie Rattlesnake

Bryan — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 00:46:13 +0000

Late at night just inside New Mexico in August of 2009, my sister and I found an adult Prairie Rattlesnake, Crotalus viridis, on the side of the road. It was pissed; clearly something was wrong with it. When adjusting my head lamp it escaped into some bushes, and came back out again as fast as I’ve ever seen a rattlesnake move.

It was acting really strangely … striking into the air in different directions, all of which opposite of where we stood, watching. Then it turned and bit itself on the side. Whoa, this snake was crazed.

If you look closely, you can see a spot of blood where it had bitten itself.

Crotalus viridis

While going to the car to get a different lens for my camera, the snake lunged at me, straight into the air, completely clearing the ground. This is the second rattlesnake I have encountered, ever, to “jump” like this. The snake was clearly disturbed, perhaps being crazed by a car earlier in the day and in pain.

Prairie Rattlesnake from New Mexico

… and one last shot with a clearer image of the facial markings of the animal. These are the larger version of the same species, Crotalus viridis, found earlier in the year in the series of posts outlining our trip to find Hopi rattlesnakes.

Crotalus viridis

Western Diamondback Rattlesnakes: Variation, Quantities, & Life Lessons

Bryan — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 07:06:18 +0000

Although they are very common, I always love seeing Western Diamondback Rattlesnakes, Crotalus atrox. They’re big, decently variable in appearance, and even moreso in attitude. In the Phoenix area, most that I see are grey or otherwise fairly bland in color, but they can also have shades of pink, red, and a great amount of variation in their distinctive pattern … from clean and defined, high contrast, to washed out two-tone.

Here are a few I’ve found within 2 days in 2009, within 70 miles of eachother.

This one was found in an interesting area along the New Mexican border with Arizona, where I have seen much more variety in this species than in other places. It has a beautiful red coloration.

Red-Phase Western Diamondback Rattlesnake

Western Diamondback Rattlesnake

This second snake was MASSIVE. It was probably the largest diamondback I’ve ever seen; right around 5′. Although this isn’t too uncommon in other places like Texas, here in Arizona this is seldom achieved. The snake also has a reduced pattern, and a nice pink tail. It was also kitten-tame, which just makes it difficult to photograph. I was really impressed with this big girl.

Diamondback Rattlesnake

Western Diamondback

Here’s one with a very clean pattern with more typical coloration, and a bad attitude, resulting in the clasic “S” pose the diamondback is famous for. I had to snap these quickly, as the storm you see in the background was dropping lightning all around us. This is definitely one way to get some adrenaline into the bloodstream.

Back off man!

Crotalus atrox

Here’s another with a minimal pattern, which would have appeared a nice pink color in the daytime.

Crotalus atrox

Here is a very young neonate, only about the size of a pencil.

Baby Rattlesnake

… and another young snake, this one with a year or two under its belt.

Crotalus atrox

Here’s a very dark individual with a great deal of speckling in the pattern.

Crotalus atrox

… and another tiny baby with seemingly too many diamonds, and strong white bands separating them.

baby rattlesnake

You may want to note the button on this snake if you currently believe that baby rattlesnakes are born without a rattle. It is true that the thing is useless at this point, though the snake tries his little head off to scare you away by shaking it regardless. Rattlesnakes are born with a prebutton, which gains a rattle-able link by the second shed.

Baby atrox

… and one last baby just to make this post way too long.

Baby rattle snake

Even though these were found within a very short time of one another, this is only a small fraction of the incredible number of diamondbacks we found on this trip. We found a total of 82 snakes on this trip all in all, the majority being diamondbacks that were just escorted off the road. I made the mistake in the past of not photographing these snakes as often as other, less common species. In the meantime, I’ve grown a great deal more knowledgeable about rattlesnakes, and it only occurred to me after examining these pictures upon returning from this trip where I’d made a point to photograph more diamondbacks that I had been missing out on a great deal. I think that I’ve stumbled upon the shape that this hobby will take once I’ve reached the goal of seeing one of all of the reptiles in the state. That goal is finite, in fact, I am sure I’ll be able to do it within the next few years (except for maybe one or two that in all likelyhood probably don’t actually exist within Arizona), but learning about and observing the variation between each species in different localities will be endless. I’m looking forward to it.

How ironicly exciting that this realization has come with our most common, and most iconic, rattlesnake.

Finding a Hopi Rattlesnake, Part 2

Bryan — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 04:16:56 +0000

Continued from part 1.

More beautiful little Hopi Rattlesnakes from our first outing in search of them.

Hopi Rattlesnake

Crotalus viridis

Hot & Dry in the South East, Part 3

Bryan — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 00:48:12 +0000

… continued from Part 1 & Part 2.

We were discussing which other rattlesnakes we could possibly see on a hot, dry evening, and no sooner did the words “there’s no way we’ll see a tiger tonight” leave my mouth did we see a Tiger Rattlesnake, Crotalus tigris. Whoa! Of course I took way too many pictures.

Crotalus tigris

Tiger Rattlesnake

Crotalus tigris

Then we saw an angry young Western Diamondback Rattlesnake, Crotalus atrox.

Crotalus atrox

A big tarantula out looking for a mate or meal:

tarantula

… and then another Black-Tailed Rattlesnake, Crotalus molossus.

Crotalus molossus

Black-Tailed Rattlesnake

Crotalus molossus

We were pretty satisfied with this and called it a night after activity seemed to tail off. In the morning we got a couple shots of one of my favorite Arizona lizards on the way out, Yarrow’s Spiny Lizard, Sceloporus jarrovi.

Sceloporus jarrovvi

Yarrow's Spiny Lizard

Sceloporus jarrovvi

Yarrow's Spiny Lizard

The last picture for this trip was a very large moth we found doing its best lichen impression.

moth

Neonate Mojave Rattlesnakes

Bryan — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 02:06:02 +0000

On a recent outing in less-than-ideal conditions revealed the first neonate rattlesnakes I’ve seen in 2009. We found this first tiny Mojave Rattlesnake, Crotalus scutulatus, on the move.

Crotalus scutulatus

I forgot something in the truck, and on the 20 foot walk to retrieve it I found another; most likely from the same mother.

Mojave Rattlesnake

Further down the road we found one more of this species. We did not see any other species, or adult snakes. I will often find very young babies out in conditions that other snakes would rather not be out in.

Crotalus scutulatus

Hot & Dry in the South East, Part 2

Bryan — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 00:37:27 +0000

… continued from Part 1

On the way to our evening target area, we found a few lizards.

A couple of Elegant Earless Lizard, Holbrookia elegans.

Elegant Earless Lizard

Holbrookia elegans

… and a Regal Horned Lizard, Phrynosoma solare.

Phrynosoma solare

After dark, the first snake we found was a MONSTER Black-Tailed Rattlesnake, Crotalus molossus. This is my favorite species of rattlesnake, and to see one this size was incredible. We did not measure it, but it was at least 4.5′ long. My snake tongs, for instance, are 46″ long, and the snake was longer even not entirely stretched out.

Crotalus molossus

… and then another huge snake. This one was not quite as large as the first, but still much larger than the average rattlesnake encountered in Arizona. The hardest part of working with these snakes was getting them to sit still long enough to photograph them. They did not seem to be bothered by us, even when picked up, and were content just going on their way.

Black-Tailed Rattlesnake

Crotalus molossus

Eastern Collared Lizard

Bryan — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 03:52:22 +0000

Here’s a young Eastern Collared Lizard, Crotaphytus collaris, found basking one morning in June.

Collared Lizard

Hot & Dry in the South East, Part 1

Bryan — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 00:16:31 +0000

We spent a little time in the Santa Rita mountains South of Tucson in mid July to see what there is to see. The weather actually was pretty horrible for what we were trying to do, but we had to go to Tucson to pick up a few enclosures and thought we might as well make the most of the trip. What we found were 5 rattlesnakes, one of which was the largest rattlesnake I have ever seen in Arizona, as well as a new one for my life list.

The previous night we didn’t see much, except for a pissy Sonoran Gophersnake, Pituophis catenifer affinis, or two.

Sonoran Gophersnake

Pituophis in Arizona

Gophersnake

We also found some Sonora Mud Turtles, Kinsternon sonoriense.

Sonora Mud Turtle

Sonora Mud Turtles

We also found a couple of frogs. The invasive American Bullfrog, Rana catesbeiana, and the protected Chiricuahua Leopard Frog, Rana chiricahuensis.

American Bullfrog

Chiricuahua Leopard Frog

The dry and the heat gave us an uneventful first evening and early morning hike, except for this Ring-Necked Snake, Diadophis punctatus. It was the first either of us had ever seen of this snake, despite it being fairly common throughout much of the state.

Ring-Necked Snake

A look at the brilliantly colored underbelly.

Diadophis punctatus

Prickley Royalty

Bryan — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 19:42:36 +0000

Here’s a pair of Regal Horned Lizards, Phrynosoma solare, found in June basking on a dirt road. Neither tried to run away at all, and let me just walk up and grab them for some photos. Cute little guys.

Phrynosoma solare

Regal Horned Lizard

Finding Our First Hopi Rattlesnakes, Part 1

Bryan — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 04:05:20 +0000

In the early monsoonal rains, Kelly and I went to Northern Arizona to try and find our first Hopi Rattlesnakes, Crotalus viridis, formally Crotalus viridis nuntius. The snake has actually recently been shown to be just regular Crotalus viridis, commonly called Prairie Rattlesnake, which is found elsewhere in North Eastern Arizona and throughout New Mexico.

Conditions were a little shakey as we got our hotel room for the night. It had been downpouring all day, and the streets were flooded with 6″ or more of water. The same was true for the habitat that we could see. Temperatures were also 10 degrees below where we wanted them, and it was only 4:30pm. Our hope was that our search area, 20 miles away, had not been hit as hard, and the ground would regain some heat in the final hours before dark.

Things went well, to say the least. In our first outing looking for Hopi Rattlesnakes, we found 5 of them. I did as I always do with something new to me; I took way too many pictures. I’ll split them up over the course of several posts. Here is the first.

Crotalus viridis viridis

Crotalus viridis

Hopi Rattlesnake

Bumble Bee Rattlesnake

Bryan — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 16:27:20 +0000

This is by far one of the coolest snakes I’ve encountered. It’s a relatively large Black-Tailed Rattlesnake (Crotalus molossus) in the mountain phase coloration. I most often find the less dramatically patterned desert phase molossus, and the differences between the two are obvious.

This particular rattlesnake shows some extremely high contrast between pattern elements, but had the calm, almost boid steadiness that I think is so cool about molossus. She didn’t rattle, even when I tried my best to get her to coil up for some photos. We let her continue her way to the rocky cliffside. About an hour later, we saw her again, coming back down the other way. It was just a good experience all around; one that sticks out in my mind of the hundreds of rattlesnakes I’ve seen in the last couple of years.

Of course, I took way more photographs than is necessary.

Crotalus molossus

Mountain Phase Black Tailed Rattlesnake

Blacktail Rattlesnake in Southern Arizona

Crotalus molossus

c-molossus-23-090608

Eastern Collared Lizard

Bryan — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 19:42:05 +0000

Another example of an Eastern Collared Lizard, Crotaphytus collaris, that I believe is a female.

Eastern Collared Lizard

Baby Sonoran Sidewinder

Bryan — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 07:54:08 +0000

Just a little guy, curious about the big apre standing over him taking pictures.

Crotalus cerastes cercobombus

Pale Mojave Rattlesnake

Bryan — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 07:56:53 +0000

Mojave Rattlesnake

Here’s a nice example of one of the variations that can be found in the Mojave Rattlesnake (Crotalus scutulatus). This one was fairly uniform in color, with a minimally distinct pattern, all in various hues of peach, brown and orange.

Crotalus scutulatus

To people who aren’t experienced, the Mojave Rattlesnake can be difficult to distinguish from the Western Diamondback Rattlesnake. Their convergent patterning and tail banding can be confusing without an understanding of some of the basic differences in their physiology. Below is a photo of one of these differences, the number of scales between the ocular scales which cover the eyes. In the Mojave, there are 2 (occasionally 3). In a Western Diamondback, there are 4 or more.

2 Scuts between the eyes.

Southwestern Speckled Rattlesnakes

Bryan — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 23:18:31 +0000

Here are a couple of orange and pink phase Southwestern Speckled Rattlesnakes, Crotalus mitchellii phyrus, I found the other day. The bright salmon one with blue eyes currently resides in my office. Truly beautiful snakes.

Southwestern Speckled Rattlesnake

Crotalus mitchellii phyrus

Speckled Rattlesnake

Rattlesnake in Arizona

Arizona Black Rattlesnake

Bryan — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 03:00:53 +0000

After 10 hours of hard hiking and searching in the June heat, I found my target: the Arizona Black Rattlesnake, Crotalus cerberus. This is only the third I’ve ever seen, and the darkest coloration of my experience with them.

Here it is as it was found, sleeping in a rock cut

Crotalus cerberus

Arizona Black Rattlesnake

I left to search further into the canyon, but found nothing. On the way out, as the sun had just gone over the edge of the mountains, I found the same snake in a different location, about 100 feet from the original hideout. It was sleeping in the middle of the wash. I was able to once again sneak a few photos without disturbing the animal, and left without it even knowing I had found it both times.

Arizona Black Rattlesnake

Crotalus cerberus

Baby Gila Monster

Bryan — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 20:14:42 +0000

Here’s a tiny Gila Monster, Heloderma suspectrum, Kelly and I came across today while we explored the areas North of our home in Anthem. It was found right at the edge of their range, and was completely unexpected. Actually, I don’t think finding them is ever really expected, so nevermind. This is my 4th in life, and Kelly’s first.

Gila Monster

The Worst iPhone App Ever

Bryan — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 07:10:46 +0000

Although this isn’t nearly the smallest Sonoran Sidewinder (Crotalus cerastes cercobombus) I’ve ever seen, it was the one I saw on a night when I was bored enough to try and make it sit on my phone for maybe the nerdiest photo I’ve ever taken. Here they are, and yes I’m a dork.

Crotalus cerastes cercobombus

Sonoran Sidewinder

Greater Earless Lizard

Bryan — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 18:53:45 +0000

Another example of a colorful Greater Earless Lizard, Cophosaurus texanus, one of the most common lizards I see out there. They’re usually the first interesting thing I see on a trip, and I’m anxious to come away with something to show for my long drive to wherever. One of these days I’ll stop taking so many pictures of them, or at least so I tell myself.

Cophosaurus texanus

Mojave Rattlesnake Relocation

Bryan — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 02:39:23 +0000

I’ve only seen 2 Mojave Rattlesnakes (Crotalus scutulatus) at a home; this one, and another just out front of my own home about a week earlier. They’re cool, decently variable snakes that I always enjoy finding, but I must admit that they really keep me on my toes. They’re particularly dangerous, as their dangerous neurotoxin puts them a step ahead of many of the other rattlesnakes one would encounter. Unlike the tissue-destroying venom of other rattlesnakes in Arizona, the neurotoxin of a Mojave bite attacks the nervous system, and is capable of paralyzing critical functions (such as breathing). My own observation is that they also tend to be generally more nervous and aggressive than many other species, making them double trouble. The one and only snake that ever actually jumped at me, for instance, was a Mojave. The young snake struck with such intensity that the entire animal actually lifted off the ground and landed about a foot in front of it’s original position.

Beautiful snakes, but I give them an especially wide buffer.

Crotalus scutulatus

Mojave Rattlesnake

Crotalus scutulatus

A Big Desert Spiny Lizard

Bryan — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 19:32:44 +0000

This is the most colorful Desert Spiny Lizard, Sceloporus magister, I have ever seen. While not displaying a lot of variety, the head is solid red-orange. It was also very large. In fact, upon first seeing it, I thought it was a squirrel. Cool lizards.

Desert Spiny Lizard

Hazards of Love

Bryan — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 06:09:50 +0000

One morning awhile back I spent the afternoon sitting behind a wall just North of Congress, Arizona, and watched the Greater Earless Lizards (Cophosaurus texanus) in great tumult over a female. Over the course of an hour or so, many males came, danced, and were either driven off or just ran away in apparent frustration. The males can be wonderfully colorful, and they brought their best that morning.

Greater Earless Lizards

Cophosaurus texanus, mating behavior

Greater Earless Lizards in Love

Finally someone made a move. Sorry for the blurry crap photo.

Lizard Porn

Oh, and the title of this post is from the album I’m listening to right now, The Hazards of Love
by the Decemberists. Fitting, so there it goes.

Three Tiny Snakes

Bryan — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 18:58:05 +0000

In the last few trips in Arizona’s ultra-dry June, the only snakes I’ve seen are very small. There are many tiny snakes that make a living eating termites, scorpions, spiders, and other soft-bodied invertebrates, and do not get much more than a foot long. There are also those snakes that feed upon these snakes, they themselves never acheiving a great size.

This one may be one of the smallest, the slightly venomous Smith’s Blackheaded Snake, Tantilla hobartsmithi. This is the first of this species I have seen, despite them being very common. This is most likely due to their tiny size. This adult was around 7 inches long, with a maximum size of around 12 inches.

Smith's Blackheaded Snake

Another small snake is the common Groundsnake, Sonora semiannulata. I get quite a few emails asking me about the identity of a “baby snake” found in a garage or under a yard rock. Commonly found in and around homes in the Phoenix area, they eat scorpions and spiders, including potentially dangerous bark scorpions and black widows. One of these in your yard is a good thing.

Sonora semiannulata

A snake that eats both of the above species is the Desert Nightsnake, Hypsiglena chlorophaea. One of 3 species of nightsnake found in Arizona, it kills them with a weak venom worked in by enlarged teeth in the rear of the mouth. It gets larger than the above, maxing out at about 2 feet long. Most I have seen, however, are in the neighborhood of 12″-14″. This one grew tired of me harrassing it while trying to take a photo and adopted a defensive head-at-the-bottom coiled position.

Desert Nightsnake

Young California Kingsnake

Bryan — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 22:25:52 +0000

Here’s a very young california kingsnake (Lampropeltis getula californiae) I found out doing his thing one night.

After missing a bite, it curled into a defensive ball.

California Kingsnake

I moved it to the base of a tree, where, which to my surprise it climbed up into the lower branches and then just sat still for some photos.

Lampropeltis getula californiae

Desert Grassland Whiptail

Bryan — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 18:44:59 +0000

I had to follow this little Desert Grassland Whiptail, Aspidoscelis uniparens, around for 15 minutes before it would hold still long enough to get a quick photo. Like a lot of whiptails I encounter, it didn’t much mind my presence, and felt just fine continuing to root around in the soft soil looking for small insects.

As the species name may suggest, uniparens, this species is entirely female; each baby being a perfect clone of the parent. This of course also renders them unable to change with their habitat or adapt to new challenges, ultimately leading to the demise of the species.

Desert Grassland Whiptail

Plateau Fence Lizard

Bryan — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 21:33:39 +0000

One of hundreds of instances of Plateau Fence Lizard, Sceloporus tristichus, I see when in the higher elevation forests of the Bradshaw Mountains North of Phoenix. This is the first I have photographed, since I had previously assumed they were something else. Good to slow down and look around once in awhile!

Plateau Fence Lizard

Sonoran Gophersnakes

Bryan — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 22:14:43 +0000

I found 2 large, adult Sonoran Gophersnakes (Pituophis catenifer affinis) within 50 feet of eachother in the early evening in April. Neither wanted to fight, which was a little uncommon for these guys. It left me a little disappointed, because it’s fun to see these large constrictors put on their impressive show of puffing, hissing, and strikes.

Oh well, still good to see them.

Sonoran Gophersnake

Pituophis catenifer affinis

Sonoran Mud Turtles

Bryan — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 20:33:33 +0000

An unsuccessful trip to the S. E. portion of Arizona on the hunt for Green Ratsnakes and Brown Vinesnakes ended up yielding some worthwhile byproducts. A cattle pond full with one log and a good number of Sonoran Mud Turtles , Kinosternon sonoriense, basking in the sun. These are the first that I’ve seen of this species. One more for the life list. There is one time that I found several empty shells of these turtles in the Superstition Mountains, in the rocks near the bank. Some bird had a good meal.

Sonoran Mud Turtle

Kinosternon sonoriense

Sonoran Mud Turtles