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

Crotalus-oreganus-lutosus-2-090111

Here’s another shot, fashioned up HDR style.

C-o-lutosus-1-090111

Long-Nosed Snake, Rhinocheilus lecontei

longnosed snake

Desert Spiny Lizard, Sceloporus magister

desert spiny lizard

Sonoran Groundsnake, Sonora semiannulata

Groundsnake

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.

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

Greater Short Horned Lizard

Sonoran Coachwhip, Coluber flagellum cingulum

Coachwhip

He’s pretty cool looking, too.

Crotalus cerberus

Arizona Black Rattlesnake

Western Diamondback Rattlesnake, Crotalus atrox

Crotalus atrox

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

Please cover the eyes of any juvenile reptiles in the room before viewing.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=beDXxSh3Sqg

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

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.

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.

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

www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQ_CaCsjCEk

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.

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.

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.

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.

For comparison, here is a young, higher-contrast individual from the same area

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.

The only reptiles I saw that day, aside from a beautiful red prairie rattlesnake that was hit by the car in front of me later on, were a big group of spiny lizards out catching some sun. The temperature up there in the snow was only in the mid-40′s, but the rocks themselves were warm enough for basking. I count 9 lizards in this photo; only a fraction of the ones that scattered away as I approached.

Entomologists? Any help with the ID?

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

Arizona Black Rattlesnake

Blacktail

Blacktail

Here’s where he was sitting when found:

Crotalus molossus molossus

Crotalus molossus molossus

Western Banded Gecko

Greater Earless Lizard

Desert Horned Lizard

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

Phrynosoma platyrhinos

Nightsnake

Nightsnake

mojave

mojave

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

Crotalus atrox

Crotalus atrox

Crotalus molossus

Crotalus molossus

Blacktail

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

HDR version

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

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

Coleonyx variegatus

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

Western Banded Gecko

So, in my first official marketing statement, for safe & humane rattlesnake removal services, call Phoenix Rattlesnake Solutions at 480-237-9975.

Rattlesnake Relocation in Phoenix

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

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

Stripe-Tailed Scorpion, Hoffmannius spinigerus

Stripe Tailed Scorpion

Harcuvar mountains, on a chilly snake-less afternoon.

Harcuvars

The foothills North of my home in Anthem, Arizona.

Anthem

An outcrop near New River, Arizona

New River Rocks

… and the same hill in the other direction. It’s not snow, it’s a hill of crumbled white quartz, early in the morning.

New River

Amblypigids

Big creepy arachnid with a nightsnake:

desert dance party 3000

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

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

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

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?

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

Snakes come to your property for one of 3 reasons:

1. They’re just passing through.
2. They’re looking for food.
3. They’re looking for shelter.

The first one may be a little tough to prevent, but the latter two are easy. I don’t know how many rattlesnakes I’ve pulled out of drip system flowerpots or from messy piles of yard debris. If you have things in your yard that attract rodents, you will attract snakes. If you have lots of good places to hide, you will attract snakes. Just keep your property free of these and you should not have nearly as much of a problem.

As for whether or not lime keeps snakes away; that’s just silly. It’s one of those things where someone did some internal logic about how lime is supposed to burn flesh because they saw Fight Club one too many times and went ahead and decided it to be a fact. It’s a myth, end of story. If you’re truly concerned, contact your local Fish and Game office.

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.

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

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

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!!!!

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

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

Hopi Rattlesnake, Crotalus viridis.

Hopi Rattlesnake

Hopi Rattlesnake

Crotalus viridis viridis

Crotalus molossus

Crotalus molossus

Black-Tailed Rattlesnake

… and an HDR for the hell of it.

HDR Blacktail

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

Coluber bilineatus

Soniran Whipsnake

Sonoran Whipsnake, Coluber bilineatus