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Hey guys, sorry for the delay with this post - my computer was stolen the day before I flew back to the east coast. Luckily, everyone on the research team exchanged photos before we left. Here I supplement my own pictures with those from Matt, Jess, and Michelle.











road cruisin




DOR glossy snake (Arizona elegans occidentalis), unfortunately the only find of the night


parasitized mourning cloak butterfly chrysalis (Nymphalis antiopa)


squirrel tail flagging and kicking dirt at a gopher snake (Pituophis catenifer catenifer)






rattler in a log


black-tailed deer (Odocoileus hemionus)




pond turtle basking (Actinemys marmorata)


attempt at mouth-to-tube resuscitation on a snake that wasn't waking up from surgery






our temporary pet squirrel (used for scenting Robo-Squirrel) gets a visitor


a squirrel sneaks into the kitchen










shotgun lunch break




Matt went to check on one of our snakes just in time to see it strike this pup




Matt gets the weight on the pup before the snake begins to search for it


a few minutes later...
















the snake started getting pissed off at this point, so we backed off


banana slug (Ariolimax sp.)








nestlings


checkerspot butterfly (Euphydryas sp.)






pond turtle






whiptail (Aspidoscelis tigris munda)






juvenile Skilton's skink (Plestiodon skiltonianus skiltonianus)




juvenile racer (Coluber constrictor mormon)






Skilton's skink (Plestiodon skiltonianus skiltonianus)








toads in amplexus (Bufo boreas)








frog eggs too


sharp-tailed snake (Contia tenuis)








Calisoga spider, aka "false tarantula" (Calisoga sp.)


ring-necked snake (Diadophis punctatus amabilis)


we found this completely emaciated rattler trapped inside of a locked shed


if you look closely at the rattle, you can see that the most recent additions actually decrease in size, suggesting this snake had been trapped for quite some time (several shed cycles). when provided with water, it drank over 1/4 of its body weight by the following morning. we also fed it a fence lizard before releasing it.




bobcat (Felis rufus)




yellow-eyed ensatina (Ensatina eschscholtzii xanthoptica)




california (?) newt (Taricha torosa torosa)






red-legged frog (Rana draytonii)




yellow-legged frog (Rana boylii)




dark-eyed junco (Junco hyemalis)


treefrog (Pseudacris sierra)






checkerspot butterflies mating


mourning cloak butterfly caterpillar


yearling rattlesnake




very long rattle on this snake we got in one of our traps


fence lizards - female/male comparison (Sceloporus occidentalis bocourtii)










thanks for looking, hope everyone enjoyed this series. more to come in the future.


-Zach

cool stuff!!

that had to be the ugliest tarantula. lol

best series ever nice job guys

The bird is a male dark-eyed junco (Junco hyemalis).

thanks guys, glad you enjoyed it. also thanks for the bird ID - i'll put that in there.

-zach

The skink with the bright blue tail i'm almost certain is Skilton's - I think Gilberts in that area do not have blue tails as young (but rather have red or orange).

Dude, sweet series... I have enjoyed these all summer long, definitely an experience you won't soon forget.

Great post! You had a lot of cool things in there. I really enjoyed it.

Ryan

Looks like fun, great post.

Just curious, was the resuscitation attempt successful?

Unfortunately, we did lose that snake (after hours of CPR, a technique that has saved other snakes which were slow to regain consciousness) - this was the only individual that didn't regain consciousness out of nearly 20 snakes that underwent surgery over the course of the summer. Dosage was prescribed based on the snakes weight, so this was unusual and we don't really know what happened (I believe the snake was saved for a necropsy).

-Zach

Neat stuff, thanks for sharing. All of your skinks are skiltonianus.

BH

Awesome variety of animals!

Very nice post!
The pictures with the Anurans under the water are tricky. They look like they are just sitting on dry land.

-Jake Scott

Great post! Were you in the Ohlone the entire time? Finding an Arizona seems to be a really good find. Did you ever come across any Ambystoma californiense larvae in those ponds?

The other frog eggs were boylii in case you weren't sure.

Interesting post and pictures. It's pretty amazing that the rattlesnake was able to survive so long inside that shed. Who knows what the temps in there climbed to on hot days. Nice habitat shots, too. That's beautiful country for sure.

Levi - all of the rattlesnake research was conducted in Ohlone, however, the DOR glossy was found outside of the park when we had downtime to do some road cruising. And no, didn't see any ambystoma larvae, I think the fact that the ponds were stocked with fish may have inhibited their occurrence there.

-Zach

That was great.. More next year???

thanks matt - hopefully more next spring/summer, depending on what kinda job i can land after I graduate in december. I'll admit it'll be hard to top this though

Thanks. I have enjoyed reading this series. No mountain lions?

What a great experience.

We didn't see any mountain lions (I don't think many people do), but they were definitely in the area. A jawbone was found at our site, see one of my earlier posts for a photo.

-Zach