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.
Feb
24th
2011
Speckled Rattlesnakes Mating
I have a beautiful pair of speckled rattlesnakes that I keep in my office … they’re both white … not light, but WHITE like vanilla frosting. He’s been putting the moves on her for a few weeks now, and this is the first time it’s actually happened. These are going to be some really good looking babies.
Please cover the eyes of any juvenile reptiles in the room before viewing.
Feb
21st
2011
The Least Expected Rattlesnake Ever
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.
Feb
18th
2011
Diamondback Rattlesnake Whoops
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.
Feb
14th
2011
Black Tailed Rattlesnake from the Guadalupe Mountains in New Mexico
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.
Feb
11th
2011
One More elegans … A Painted Desert Glossy Snake from Hudspeth County, Texas
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
Feb
9th
2011
Another Tarantula From The Past
Here’s another one from back when I had just discovered the fun of wandering around at night, taking pictures of things. Based on how awful this photo is, this very well could be one of the first wild tarantulas I’d ever seen.
Tarantula
Feb
7th
2011
A Baby Glossy Snake
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
Feb
6th
2011
Superbowl Sunday Snake: First Rattlesnake Relocation of 2011
I was surprised to get a call from the Arizona Herpetological Association today to relocate a young diamondback near my home. It was hiding in a water box in a front yard in the Carefree Highway / I-17 area. I found a really great place for him to hide instead, about a half mile away. It wasn’t a field snake, but I guess the year has begun.
Feb
4th
2011
Baby Blacknecked Gartersnake Failing to Catch Tadpoles
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.
Jan
31st
2011
Roomies: Desert Tortoises and Rattlesnakes
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.
