I haven’t been herping in awhile now. It’s hot, dry, and my gas budget has gone to visiting old friends and an upcoming trip to see my parents in New Mexico. I did manage to find a couple of Great Basin Gopher Snakes (Pituophis catenifer deserticola) while driving through Utah, but that’s about it. With the dry air and expensive gas, it’s best for me to just wait for the rain. Maybe I’ll sort through some of the scenery and non-herp shots I’ve taken in the last few weeks and throw them up to fill in the gaps.
Jun
25th
2008
Laying Low
Jun
10th
2008
Diamondback Rescue While I Wait for Rain
The herping has been on pause these last few weeks. In late May, Kris and I had quite a trip down to the South East part of the state and really didn’t see much of anything. The air is extremely dry at this time of year, leaving a lot of reptiles in their holes until things become a little more favorable with the rains in late July or so. With gas so expensive, I’d rather just wait it out and then go crazy for a few weeks when I’m likely to see things.
Here’s a Western Diamondback Rattlesnake rescued awhile back from a home in Cave Creek. Nothing spectacular about this guy except how old it seemed. The tail was very long, and had broken off long ago, and was STILL one of the longest rattles I’d seen. He had a great temperment, and never struck or really rattled to speak of.
Crotalus atrox
Western Diamondback Rattlesnake
Crotalus atrox
May
30th
2008
Memorial Day Hike in the McDowell Mountains
After a couple hours of difficult hiking in the White Tanks on the 25th, I was looking forward to a nice and calm stroll over flat land with Kelly for Memorial day. We slept in late and left the house around 1, and only planned to be gone a few hours. Temps were in the low 80’s and lizards were everywhere.
Callisaurus draconoides
Callisaurus draconoides
On the way out we found a big, old Western Diamondback Rattlesnake (Crotalus atrox) crossing a wash. It was a good opportunity to try out a new lense and work out some kinks in my daytime exposures. Ya, I could just practice on inanimate objects in the backyard or something, but uh, not as fun.
Crotalus atrox
Diamondback from Arizona
Diamondback from Arizona
May
27th
2008
Desert Night Snake
Kris and I went out the other night, but the low-pressure system moving down on us made it too cold to herp pretty quickly after sundown. On the way back to town we did find a cool little Desert Night Snake (Hypsiglena chlorophaea).
Desert Nightsnake
May
23rd
2008
Ugh (Except for the molossus)
The weekend looked good for a trip up north to see what there is to see. We got a hotel room and headed out and were justified 10 minutes into our hike with a beautiful Black-Tailed Rattlesnake. It was my second in 2 weeks of my favorite rattlesnake, and Kelly’s first experience with one. I probably saved too many photos of it, but oh well. I had fun.
Crotalus molossus
Black-Tailed Rattlesnake
Crotalus molossus
Crotalus molossus
Black-Tailed Rattlesnake in Arizona
The sun set and we left, and found a really aggressive Western Diamondback Rattlesnake (Crotalus atrox) a mile or so away. It was a big contrast from the usual slow, solid demeanor of the molossus.
Crotalus atrox
The rest of the trip wasn’t so much fun. There were a lot of misses … a ground snake, a whipsnake, a few other odds and ends, and maybe the largest Sonoran Gophersnake I’d ever seen. I misjudged the situation and lost him into a hole in the ground. The only other photos I took were of this Zebra-Tailed Lizard (Callisaurus draconiodes) the next morning on the way out.
Callisaurus draconiodes
Thats it! Oh ya, and here’s the newly-fixed email subscription thingie, in case its easier for you that way.
May
21st
2008
Superstitions Black-Tailed Rattlesnake (continued)
Here are a few more pictures of the snake from Mother’s day.
Crotalus molossus from Arizona
Blacktailed Rattlesnake found Field Herping in Arizona
Crotalus molossus
Black-Tailed Rattlesnake found outside Phoenix, Arizona
May
19th
2008
Superstition Mountains Black-Tailed Rattlesnake
Here’s a Black-Tailed Rattlesnake (Crotalus molossus) from a few ago. I found him after a long hike in the Superstition mountains, Northeast of Mesa, Arizona. He’d just finished swimming across a creek and was heading into the bushes at the base of a large tree when I found him. This is my favorite rattlesnake, and my first of the year.
Crotalus molossus
Black-Tailed Rattlesnake from the Superstition Mountains, Arizona
Blacktail Rattlesnake
May
13th
2008
Baby Bearded Dragons!
I know it’s not field herping, but the babies started coming out of their eggs today and I had to take some pictures.
Here they are coming out and opening their eyes for the first time.
Bearded Dragons Hatching
Here they are with my ipod shuffle for size comparizon.
Baby Bearded Dragons
Here’s one that’s about 20 minutes old on his dad’s head. He isn’t sure what to think of them, other than that they probably look delicious.
Tiny Bearded Dragon with His Dad
May
12th
2008
“No Herping Weekend” = FAIL
Last weekend was supposed to be the weekend where I don’t go herping. My brother is in town and I planned on wasting the entire time drinking and eating horrible things. Friday night went well, but by Saturday morning at 8 a.m. I was halfway up a mountain North of Phoenix.
The place kind of sucked. There was automatic gunfire from pretty much every direction. I realize they were most likely shooting at targets placed up against hillsides, but that’s a lot of trust to place in people. The other established trails were equally occupied with the most redneckingest redneckmobiles and douchy mountain bikers with their silly little hats and “I’m so much better than you” neon spandex.
I only found two things that I felt like taking pictures of.
First was a nice tarantula crawling across a wash; the first I’ve found this year. I’ve since seen two more, and will see hundreds more by years end. I wish I knew how to differentiate species.
Tarantula
The next thing was this Desert Spiny Lizard (Sceloporus magister) that I was able to sneak up to within a foot or two of before he woke up and bolted.
Desert Spiny Lizard
I also saw a lot of Tiger Whiptails, though I didn’t stop to photograph them. I like them. They don’t seem as good as the other lizards at disappearing into the brush. Usually when I’ve disturbed one, it crashes loudly through the grass and makes no attempt to hide its location.
May
4th
2008
Halfway to California with 2 Lifers
We started early and headed West, nearly all the way to Parker. Lots happened, but nothing really worth mentioning. Eventually we ended up in the Harquahala Mountains looking for boas, which is about as tedious a practice as you’ll find in this hobby. It wasn’t long before we were back out in an old favorite place looking for the usual stuff.
First snake, a Long-Nosed Snake (Rhinocheilus lecontei):
Rhinocheilus lecontei
Of course we saw a good number of Sonoran Sidewinders (Crotalus cerastes cercobombus):
Crotalus cerastes cercobombus
Then beers, tequila, more beers, a mangy cat, and sleep. Somehow I still woke up at around 7 and took off to see if anyone else was waking up. I ended up knocking 2 animals off my life-list!
Here’s something I’ve never seen before … a cerastes out crawling around in the morning sun:
Crotalus cerastes cercobombus
About 5 minutes later I found my first live Coachwhip (Masticophis flagellum piceus). I’ve seen quite a few dead Coachwhips on the sides of roads and had glimpses as they fly across the road, but never had the chance to get close to one.
Coachwhip
Here’s a Tiger Whiptail (Aspidoscelis tigris) who for some reason wasn’t at all scared of me. He let me sit down right next to him and watch him root through the dirt and do other “busy lizard” tasks, and even came walking right up to me once.
Tiger Whiptail
Tiger Whiptail
Then a Desert Patch-Nosed Snake (Salvadora hexalepis hexalepis):
Salvadora hexalepis hexalepis
Desert Patch-Nosed Snake
Then a SECOND Coachwhip:
Coachwhip
Coachwhip
A Desert Iguana (Dipsosaurus dorsalis):
Dipsosaurus dorsalis
… and finally a female Long-Nosed Leopard Lizard; my first.
Long-Nosed Leopard Lizard
Habitat:
desertscrub
Apr
27th
2008
Mojave Shovel-Nosed Snake & Sonoran Sidewinder
A couple of snakes from a slow night on the West end of Maricopa County. We found the usual bunch of Sonoran sidewinders (Crotalus cerastes) out and about. They don’t have a lot of variability, so if you’ve seen one you’ve pretty much seen them all. I usually get out to get some pictures of the first one, but after that they get an escort off the road and that’s about it.
Crotalus cerastes cercobombus, the Sonoran Sidewinder:
Crotalus cerastes cercobombus
We also found a Mojave Shovel-Nosed Snake (Chionactis occipitalis occipitalis). We haven’t seen one of these since the spring of 2006, so it was nice to get some photos. It was a little over a foot long, and that’s about their upper limit. They’re tiny little sand-loving snakes that spend most of the time in or under the loose dirt in the desertscrub.
Chionactus occipitalis occipitalis
Mojave Shovel-Nosed Snake
