Fieldherper.com » bryan d. hughes

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

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!!!!

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

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

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

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

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

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 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

Sonoran Whipsnake

Bryan — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 05:12:45 +0000

Here’s an example of one of the large, diurnal snakes I often see while looking for other snakes, a Sonoran Whipsnake (Coluber bilineatus). They’re really fast, hard to get your hands on, and extremely aggressive if you do manage to catch one. Fun stuff.

Coluber bilineatus

A Couple of Arizona Lizards

Bryan — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 22:34:52 +0000

Since moving to the Northern area of Phoenix (Anthem), I’ve been looking forward to getting into some higher elevations to look for some of the species that live there. Here are the first and second.

The first is a young Greater Short-Horned Lizard (Phrynosoma hernandesi) enjoying the early evening sun.

Phronosoma hernandesi

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Greater Short-Horned Lizard

The second is the first Madrean Alligator Lizard (Elgaria kingii) I’ve been able to photograph. I’ve seen one other one, but it slipped through my fingers in tall grass.

Madrean Alligator Lizard

Elgaria kingii

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Here was my view at about 8 a.m.

Bradshaw Mountains

Dark Diamondback from North Phoenix Area

Bryan — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 06:02:20 +0000

Here’s a cool looking Western Diamondback Rattlesnake (Crotalus atrox) from the North Phoenix area with a lot more dark/chocotate coloration than the more typical greys I see around here. He was very large and fat too, and posed nicely for some photos in the morning sun.

Crotalus atrox

Western Diamondback Rattlesnake

Crotalus atrox

Another ’08 Ridge-Nose Rattlesnake

Bryan — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 03:34:53 +0000

Last year I was lucky enough to see a few willardi out and about in South East Arizona. Now that I know what to look for, I hope to see a good amount more this year. Here’s another photo of a large male from my second productive trip into willardi range.

Crotalus willardi

The Official Start of the 2009

Bryan — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 05:57:25 +0000

It’s been on the warm side lately; being the end of February, we’ll have 90F daytime temperatures in a couple of weeks. The snakes are waking up, and they’re hungry and want to meet some girls. Although it didn’t quite hit 80 degrees here in Anthem today, I had tons of energy to burn off and thought I’d go for a little sunset hike in an area north of my new home I have yet to really explore.

Here’s a fancy pants HDR picture from my new lens:

Desert North of Phoenix

I hiked around awhile and found some cool places with a lot of flat, chipped rock that looks to be good on an afternoon sometime. On the way home, look who I found out cruising around:

Crotalus atrox

It’s the second Western Diamondback Rattlesnake (Crotalus atrox) I’ve seen this year. Something that’s immediately apparent in the two instances of atrox I’ve seen up here in the Anthem area that is different than the Mesa variety I’ve seen the most in the past is the higher amount of pink coloration; especially in the face. I look forward to seeing what other variations might be present in some of the common locals.

Crotalus atrox