Another shot of the amazing grassland and Chihuahuan scrub South of Carlsbad, New Mexcio. This habitat is great for a lot of things – most of what I found there were Western Diamondbacks with a much darker coloration than is typical here in Arizona. I know there are also Prairie Rattlesnakes here, but I did not see any in this particular area. I hope to get back soon and change that.
I am really, really slacking in the posting of new content on this thing … it’s all good stuff though, it means I’m out in the field a lot and photographing a ton of reptiles.
This is from the Spring of 2012, easily the largest Western Banded Gecko, Coleonyx variegatus, I’ve ever seen. Usually in Arizona, a huge one is about as long as a finger, and as big around as a soda straw. This one, flipped on a windy, rainy day in S.W. California, was the size of a small leopard gecko. They’re really common of course, but these have to be the prettiest U.S. lizard. There are some Eastern Collared lizards that wear their colors well, of course, but these little geckos always look amazing.
I’ve been lucky enough (or worked at it hard enough) to see quite a few tiger rattlesnakes in the last week. It’s a species I never really knew how to find with any regularity until last year, and now it seems they’re all over the place. Beautiful little snakes. This is one from a locale that is relatively new to me.
Later in the night, I found two more sitting out together.
Now in late June, without any measurable rain since December, things are tough out there. A night hike in a usually productive part of the Superstitions produced only one snake, a dehydrated diamondback out on the crawl. All weather reports say rain today; they said that yesterday too. Come on monsoons!
This last September I got to spend a few days searching for densites for the Great Basin Rattlesnake, Crotalus oreganus lutosus, in South Western Idaho. I did succeed in finding them, and the journey wasn’t bad either. I’ll save the snake photos for when I finish working on them, but here’s a taste of what the hunt looked like. Try not to sneeze from just looking at it.
Another typical looking sidewinder, with a good look at those ‘horn’ supraocular scales over each eye that helps keep it safe for a sandy lifestyle.
If you didn’t know to look for a Sonoran Gophersnake in this photograph, or have many years of pattern recognition practice, you’d never know this guy was here. How many times that happens as you hike, take out the trash, run in the park, and walk in the woods?
Many.
On a long, dry, mostly snakeless Memorial day weekend in the red sand North of the Grand Canyon, we saw this Great Basin Collared lizard. At first it ran off, as they usually do, on two legs before stopping to check out the ugly primates with unknown intentions. I always love lizards for that … rather than just leaving the scene, many species will stop to see what’s up, possibly curious. Others will at least give a few defiant pushups before leaving that prized rock.
This young guy let me try out my lizard stalking technique of getting low to the ground and keeping more or less parallel or lower once I start moving. It seems to work pretty good, as I can usually get to within a foot or two without them darting off again. Beautiful lizards and a bizarre landscape; I’ll be back soon!
My second eastern milksnake was found under a rock while we were looking (unsuccessfully) for copperheads. It was a lot smaller than I thought it would be, assuming they’d start life out somewhere near the size that I see our Lampropeltis of similar adult size. He sat on some nice contrasting moss for a bit for some photos before he was returned to under the rock where he was found.
Just another of the timer rattlesnakes seen on the 2012 PA trip. This was the only snake seen at a usually very populated basking/gestation site. It was noted that many of the leaves on surrounding trees were unusually gone or dead, leading to the unfortunate suspicion that something has happened to the area that may have had a negative impact on the snakes there.
This one is obviously staged, but be thankful for it because the alternative shot would have been the pancaked version of this snake if not scooped up from the road a few feet from this rock and stream. I know he wasn’t thankful, unless teeth and musk are a watersnake’s way of showing appreciation.
Still, I’m happy to get a shot of one full-body with habitat shown.
This was the only toad species seen during the 2012 trip, though it was interesting to see the variation as we went from place to place. In this particular locale, the toads were a rose pink.
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