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:
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.
Tags: arizona, chionactis occipitalis occipitalis, crotalus cerastes cerbobombus, Field Herping, maricopa county, mojave shovel-nosed snake, rattlesnake, shovel nose snake, shovelnosed snake, sidewinder
