Fieldherper.com » maricopa county

Diamondback in the Early Evening

Bryan — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 15:51:18 +0000

We had a great night after this shot was taken. This was the first of many we’d see in the next few hours.

Diamondback with a Cool Pattern

Bryan — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 17:16:02 +0000

Looking for giant Diamondback Rattlesnakes with some Swedish friends visiting the US for the first time, we found this cool little guy. The diamond pattern on the latter third of her body had been reduced to a series of black blotches. This is part of the reason that no matter how many diamondbacks or sidewinders I see, it’s always good to take an extra look.

Crotalus atrox

Unexpected Arizona Black Rattlesnake

Bryan — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 19:00:32 +0000

There’s an area very close to Phoenix where I have been herping for many years, and we found something I never ever expected to see there, an Arizona Black Rattlesnake, Crotalus cerberus.

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

Sidewinders sidewinding all over the place

Bryan — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 17:24:14 +0000

Here are a few of the 20 or so sidewinders easily found in an evening and about an hour of the next, as can be done nearly any Spring evening in much of Arizona.

Crotalus cerastes cercobombus

Sonoran Sidewinder

Sidewinding

cerastes

scoot scoot scoot

side winder in arizona

eyelashes

Sunset Sidewinder

Bryan — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 17:02:31 +0000

Crotalus cerastes cercobombus

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

Bright Orange Speckled Rattlesnake

Bryan — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 17:08:32 +0000

A Southwestern Speckled Rattlesnake, Crotalus mitchelli pyrrhus, from Maricopa county. The color is amazing, but not atypical for this species in this area.

Crotalus mitchelli pyrrhus

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Speckled Rattlesnake

Maricopa County Sunset

Bryan — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 06:16:31 +0000

chillier than it looks

Mojave Rattlesnakes in the Western Maricopa County Flats

Bryan — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 17:09:34 +0000

Second only to the sidewinder in encounters, the mojave rattlesnake, Crotalus scutulatus, is all over the place in the springtime in the flats of Western Maricopa county. Here are a couple of typical specimens.

Crotalus scutulatus

C-scutulatus-2-041510

C-scutulatus-3-041510

Western Diamondback Rattlesnake

Bryan — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 05:57:47 +0000

Here’s yet another pretty typical-looking Western Diamondback Rattlesnake, Crotalus atrox, out and about in the Spring.

diamondback

Great Plains Toad, Bufo cognatus

Bryan — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 20:19:31 +0000

This is a little tiny toad, new to the world of legs.

Bufo cognatus

Western Shovel-Nosed Snake

Bryan — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 01:08:32 +0000

Here’s one of two Western Shovel-Nosed Snakes, Chionactis occipitalis, from the intergrade zone, where three subspecies interbreed and any individual may show signs of two or more. Small snakes that dig around in the sandy soil looking for centipedes and other bugs.

Shovelnose Snake

The First Snake of 2010 – A Western Diamondback Rattlesnake

Bryan — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 01:07:04 +0000

I found a Western Diamondback Rattlesnake, Crotalus atrox, a couple of miles from my home in Anthem, Arizona. We’ve had a rather wet year, so temperatures have remained cool and I haven’t seen as much in the early part of the year as I did in 2009, but this year will be a killer! Lots of moisture means lots of snakes, and Spring is looking good.

Diamondback Rattlesnake in Arizona

C. atrox

One Pissed Off Rattlesnake

Bryan — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 03:00:22 +0000

I was out on the last day in August with my good herping friend Kris Haas dodging flash floods and racking up the snakes when we found a neonate Mojave Rattlesnake, Crotalus scutulatus, making his way across the road. I slammed on the brakes, dropped my window, and sent us backwards to confirm the snake and park for photos. Before I was able to turn off the car we could hear the familiar “ssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhchchchc” way off into the desert to our right; it was another snake. We couldn’t believe it, by the sound of it the snake was qay off in the distance, and it seemed unlikely it could possibly be rattling at us at this distance. Kris went off to catch the little guy, and I went off into the bushes to find the noisy guy.

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

Zuul is about to change his clothes

Bryan — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 19:37:03 +0000

This isn’t a field photo, but still pretty cool. It’s my big all-black Arizona Black Rattlesnake, Crotalus cerberus, with white eyes as he prepares to shed his skin.

Zuul

‘

A Beautiful Arizona Black Rattlesnake

Bryan — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 15:35:24 +0000

My friend Diego had never seen an Arizona Black Rattlesnake, Crotalus cerberus, before. I’d only seen a handful myself, and my position just North of Phoenix puts me in a good place to see a lot of them, if I’d just get up there and try it out. We decided to meet up and try a new spot and see what happens. What happened were 4 cerberus in about an hour and a half!

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

Quality, Not Quantity (part 1)

Bryan — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 05:29:41 +0000

On Tuesday night I headed off into the Superstition mountains for a 4-day springtime trip to try and see whatever could be seen. I would be meeting up with a pair of Timber rattlesnake researchers from Pennsylvania the next day to try and find a Black-tailed Rattlesnake (Crotalus molossus) Unfortunately, the weather did not agree with my plans. A cold front moved in to place just as quickly as I did, and the normal April daytime temperatures of 90 degrees dropped to a windy 75. Evening air temperatures were as low as the upper 50′s by 9pm, creating quite a challenge for the next few days. The original plan was to visit the mountains to the South East of Tucson, but I thought we’d have a better chance in my favorite local range, the Superstition mountains to the East of Phoenix.

It was a good sign when I saw this Ground Snake (Sonora Semiannulata) within minutes of arriving on location.

Sonora semiannulata

Groundsnake

Here he is again without the Flash, in the dramatic late-afternoon lighting. I prefer this sort of shot than the ‘field guide’ style above.

Ground Snake

Sonora semiannulata

When I was done photographing, I watched it crawl into a crack in a rock cut, which was also inhabited by a sub-adult Chuckwalla. The only part visible was the tail; evidence that somebody isn’t as sneaky as they think they are.

Chuckwalla

That's a weird looking root.

The evening lighting can be quite dramatic in the canyon. I haven’t been able to accurately portray how this place looks with my photos.

Superstition Mountains

One last photograph for this portion of the story; a large Red Spotted Toad (Bufo punctatus):

Red Spotted Toad

Bufo punctatus

Some Early Rain

Bryan — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 21:09:51 +0000

It rained on the 26th. It’s a little early, and we really wanted to just get out of the house. I knew we wouldn’t see much, if anything, but a night out cruising with no snakes is always better than a boring and hot Thursday evening hiding inside from the sun.

The clouds and smoke made for a really nice bright sunset that gave the usually colorful Superstition Mountains a desaturated, grey-green color. It was a really nice drive.

Superstition mountains sunset

We did see a couple of young atrox out and about. This is the first one. The second was on a tight, blind curve with a cliff off to the side in an area where dumbasses regularily speed around corners without regard to which lane they’re in. He looked about the same as this one, so I just got out long enough to hurry it off the road.

Anyway… here’s the little guy. I’m not sure why, but I didn’t pay attention to the depth of field while photographing.

Crotalous atrox

Western Diamondback Rattlesnake

We also found an adult Red-Spotted Toad (Bufo punctatus) out enjoying the bump in humidity from none to almost none. I remember I hiked near this area in October, 2006, and young punctatus absolutely covered the ground. I took some time to see how many I could stack on top of eachother from big to small.

Bufo punctatus

Red-Spotted Toad

… and this last picture isn’t any good, but I always think its funny when one of these ends up on the card when trying to photograph a toad. Position the shot, shoot, look in the viewfinder and I have a nice picture of empty dirt. Escape!

escape!

Thats it for now. Hopefully I’ll get up to the task of uploading pictures from a recent trip to Utah and a fairly unproductive trip down south in the ultra-dry air of May.

Diamondback Rescue While I Wait for Rain

Bryan — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 03:24:29 +0000

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

Desert Night Snake

Bryan — Tue, 27 May 2008 19:01:26 +0000

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

Mojave Shovel-Nosed Snake & Sonoran Sidewinder

Bryan — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 06:15:23 +0000

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

Recent Outings

Bryan — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 03:16:09 +0000

The last few times out have been a little slower. On the 13th, Kris and I went up to Yavapai County to look for some Speckled Rattlesnakes (Crotalus Mitchellii) or maybe a Rosy Boa (Lichanura trivirgata), but struck out. Even that night cruising back to town in the lower elevations that all indications showed would be nice and warm dropped down into the 60′s within minutes of the sun setting.

We did find a young, sleepy Regal Horned Lizard (Phrynosoma solare) laying in the road. He sat perfectly still while we played with our cameras. The only other notable critter of the trip was the bark scorpion that I posted a picture of awhile back.

Regal Horned Lizard - Phrynosoma solare

A few nights later Kris and I again had a dead night West of Phoenix. We found one decently-behaved Long-nosed Snake (Rhinocheilus lecontei).

Long-nosed Snake

Then, my girlfriend Kelly and I went camping near Payson for the weekend. It was pretty cold all weekend, but I did find a couple of Wandering Gartersnakes (Thamnophis elegans vagrans) near the stream. 2 would have been 4 if my hands were a bit faster and I werent’ so worried about dropping my new camera into the water.

Here’s the first one:

Wandering Gartersnake

The next 2 pictures are of another one resting in the shade maybe 20 feet away.

\"Can I eat this big biped coming this way?\"

\"No! Hisssss spit fft!\"

… and that’s pretty much it for the last week. Hopefully the rest of April will treat me a little better.

moon

Western Lyresnake from 2007

Bryan — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 03:55:47 +0000

Here’s a Western Lyresnake (Trimorphodon biscutatus) I found with Bill Sloan from the AHA last summer sometime in the mountains South of Bagdad, Arizona. I’ll probably have a lot of these ‘found this in my old stuff’ kind of posts in the next month or so as I streamline my process on this computer with my new software.

Herping West of Phoenix, 03-28-08

Bryan — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 18:25:47 +0000

We went out tonight and found a good 10 or so snakes in the nice, warm air. The temperatures stayed in the mid 70′s for about an hour and a half after dark, and there was a lot of movement in that time. Here’s some of what we found:

Desert Horned Lizard

Bryan — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 04:02:24 +0000

We went for a short hike Easter evening about an hour West of Phoenix and saw lizards of all sorts. I got a few shots that might have had some promise, but am not too bright and left my ISO at 800 from some previous in-home screwing around. Lots of white on my card. Whoops! I did realize it in time, however, to get a couple shots of a cool little Desert Horned Lizard (Phrynosoma platyrhinos).

* Thanks to Jeff Williams from the AHA for the correct ID.

South Mountain, Phoenix AZ 03-15-08

Bryan — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 03:54:00 +0000

Kelly and I finally got out of the house to try out luck in the low 70′s weather we’ve been having. We’re both still getting over being sick so lazily poking around a local mountain was a great time. We saw a lot of side blotched (Uta stansburian) and Ornate Tree (Urosaurus ornatus) lizards, but no snakes or chucks. Oh well. It was a nice day and we made the most of it by finding a nice place to sit for awhile, and for me to practice a little with some high dynamic range photography on my new camera. I saved them as high-res desktop graphics for wide-format monitors. Download them and check them out.

Regular picture of a regular lizard out looking for a girlfriend (this isn’t the HDR, obivously).

Desert HDR 1 (right-click to save as):

Desert HDR 2 (right-click to save as):