SoCal Herping roundup 4th-11th of June. (Lotsa Pics!)

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zeevng
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SoCal Herping roundup 4th-11th of June. (Lotsa Pics!)

Post by zeevng »

Hello to all. :)
So, this took me quite some time, but in my defense, my computer broke, and I just got it running again!

As some may know from my previous posts, I had a friend from India come to visit. He is an award winning naturalist in Southern Asia, and an avid herper and photographer.
The first day after he arrived we herped and birded the Santa Monica mountains, and the following day, we headed down to Anza-Borrego for a few days.
What follows is an illustrated account of this. :D

Tragically, the day we drove down to Anza-Borrego, my camera died, and I discovered I brought the wrong car charger for my camera. :? So, I was camera-less for the entire trip.
My friend, Rahul, was gracious enough to let me use all of his photography from the trip; he sent me the RAW data, and it was upto me to crop, edit, and prepare them for this post.
I promised I would link to his site, where there is an astounding assortment of photography; Herps, Birds, and travels.
So, here it is! http://www.rahulalvares.com
Besides from him being a friend, I really recommend checking that out, he has some astounding stuff there! :)

Anyway, let's get down to it! :)

So, as I said, we spent the first day in the Santa Monica mountains. Herping-wise, it didn't turn up much, but he was quite happy with the birding.
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Santa-Monica mountains by eryx jhoni, on Flickr

We spent the morning bird-watching by Malibu Creek.
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Western Bluebird by eryx jhoni, on Flickr

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American Goldfinch by eryx jhoni, on Flickr

After that we came upon the only snake we were to find that day.
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Striped racer (Coluber Lateralis) by eryx jhoni, on Flickr

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Striped Racer (Coluber Lateralis) by eryx jhoni, on Flickr

A curious ground squirrel was quite interested in our antics!
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Ground squirrel by eryx jhoni, on Flickr

After that, I drove him down to Malibu beach, where we had lunch, and spent the rest of the day showing him around L.A; Venice Beach, Beverly hills, the Sunset Strip, Mullholand drive; all the "Must-see" sights of L.A. :D

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Venice beach afternoons by eryx jhoni, on Flickr

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Bored-Gulls 'R' Us! by eryx jhoni, on Flickr

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Pagani Huayra on Rodeo Drive by eryx jhoni, on Flickr

The next day, we got up early, and set out to get us a fishing license from Walmart, as well as stock up on supplies for the trip. Namely, water, water, and more water! As soon as we were done, we piled into the car and set off.
My little brother came along as well, so the three of us got on the freeway and headed down south. Thanks to the seemingly ever-present freeway construction work that goes on in L.A it took us a while to get out of L.A county.
On the way down, we stopped in Corona to visit fellow Forum member, Shredsteban, who would be joining us in Anza-Borrego the next day.
After many stops, and wrong turns, we finally got off the 15 freeway and headed inland. Despite leaving early, we had lost so much time on the way that it was getting dark already, and we slowed down to start roadcruising. Not even 15 minutes in, I spotted our first snake and pulled over. "Rattlesnake!" I told Rahul excitedly, as his goal for the trip was any rattlesnakes, not having seen them before.
Sitting in the middle of the road, was this beautiful baby Helleri.

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Southern-Pacific rattlesnake (Crotalus helleri) by eryx jhoni, on Flickr

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Southern-Pacific rattlesnake (Crotalus helleri) by eryx jhoni, on Flickr

We photographed the bemused Helleri for a while, until Rahul asked me, "Why isn't it rattling at all? Or striking, or being aggressive whatsoever?" I didn't have an answer for him, but this was just the first in a string of the mildest-mannered crotes I've ever encountered. Not a rattle was to be heard the whole trip!
Anyway, after we got our shots, we piled back in the car and kept going.
After the customary excited stops for banana peels and bits of pipe, I spotted the unmistakable coils of a baby snake on the shoulder.
My brother ran up to it, and discovered a beautiful baby Glossy.

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Glossy snake (Arizona Elegans) by eryx jhoni, on Flickr

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Glossy snake (Arizona Elegans) by eryx jhoni, on Flickr

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Glossy snake (Arizona Elegans) by eryx jhoni, on Flickr

As we photographed him, I noticed a white-ish shape on the shoulder a few feet up the road. I ran up to it, and discovered an adorable baby Gopher, DOR.

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DOR Gopher snake baby (Pituophis catenifer) by eryx jhoni, on Flickr

This would be the first of three DOR Gophers that night.
After missing our turn, and ending up in Julien, we made our way slowly back up to Borrego springs, stopping on the way for both more "fake" snakes, and DORs.

Coming into town, I spotted what was to be the last snake of the night, a Lifer for all of us.

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Leaf-nosed snake (Phyllorhynchus decurtatus) by eryx jhoni, on Flickr

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Leaf-nosed snake (Phyllorhynchus decurtatus) by eryx jhoni, on Flickr

A Leaf-nosed snake was my goal for the trip, so it was nice to see one on the first night itself!
After getting our fill of it, we began to roadcruise through the town. No more live snakes for the night, but we did see a couple of DOR Glossy's.
We also happened upon this ultra pissed off Camel spider!

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An unknown Solifuge by eryx jhoni, on Flickr

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An unknown Solifuge by eryx jhoni, on Flickr

As we left town to find somewhere to camp, (We'd decided to spend the nights "backcountry camping" and save on the campsites, which were really just the same thing but for a charge!), we started seeing Banded Geckos everywhere.

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Banded Gecko (Coleonyx variegatus) by eryx jhoni, on Flickr

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Banded Gecko (Coleonyx variegatus) by eryx jhoni, on Flickr

We spread our sleeping bags with the dawn light already starting to show, and slept till it got too hot to be in the sun; 6:30 am. :D

This is the view we woke up to. God, I love the desert!

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Anza-Borrego by eryx jhoni, on Flickr

We got on our way, and spent the next few hours driving around the town, for Rahul to photograph all the animals he'd heard of, but never seen. Jackrabbits, Roadrunners, California Quail, etc.

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Jack Rabbit by eryx jhoni, on Flickr

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Jack Rabbit by eryx jhoni, on Flickr

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Roadrunner by eryx jhoni, on Flickr

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California Quail by eryx jhoni, on Flickr

This Chipmunk (I think?) kept harassing this dove, running at it and jumping up and down next to it, till the dove moved a few inches over, for the performance to repeat itself.

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A candid moment by eryx jhoni, on Flickr

By 11 am, we saw that no further animals were planning to show themselves, so we went and took shelter in the park at the center of town, the Christmas Circle. We spread a mat in the shade, pulled out the guitars, and whiled away the day that way.
By 7:30-8, it was cool enough to head out again. We started at one of the developed campgrounds, where we had seen a couple of DOR Shovel-noses that morning. We drove in, and barely two minutes later, I hit the brakes for our first live Shovel-nose, again, a lifer for all of us.

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Colorado Desert Shovel-Nosed snake (Chionactis occipitalis annulata) by eryx jhoni, on Flickr

We continued to drive, and started getting frustrated at the lack of live snakes, only about 7 DOR Shovel noses.
Finally, as we cruised down a long dark road, a large, coiled serpent was thrown into light by my headlights.
It was, to our great delight, a Sidewinder! Our first ever, and a beautiful specimen, at that! Another lifer species.

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Sidewinder (Crotalus Cerastes) by eryx jhoni, on Flickr

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Sidewinder (Crotalus cerastes) by eryx jhoni, on Flickr

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Sidewinder (Crotalus Cerastes) by eryx jhoni, on Flickr

Again, as we photographed and photographed him/her, there was not a rattle nor a strike to be found! He was infinitely more mild-mannered than the Shovel-nose we found earlier!
As we were finishing photographing the Sidewinder, I got a call from Shredsteban and a fellow forum member (though I do not know your username! Sorry! Feel free to make yourself known!) telling me they had arrived in Borrego Springs, and that we should head off to cruise together. We met up, and started cruising some roads he had good experiences with. As we were heading up Yaqui pass, we came upon three stopped cars, with their hazards on, and a group of people with cameras at the side of the road. "If these aren't fellow herpers, I don't know what they are!" I thought to myself. Indeed, it was several fellow forum members (Again, I am drawing a blank on names. Sorry about that! Please, comment if you were there! :D ), all shooting a beautiful juvenile Ruber in a bush.

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Red Diamond Rattlesnake (Crotalus Ruber) by eryx jhoni, on Flickr

And for the third time, it was the most mild Crote I've encountered! After photographing for a bit, we piled back in to keep driving the loop. Shredsteban pulled ahead, and me and Rahul dropped back a bit. As we came around a corner, we found them parked and running towards a snake.
It was this beautiful black and white Shovel-nosed snake.

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Mojave Shovel-Nosed snake (Chionactis occipitalis occipitalis) by eryx jhoni, on Flickr

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Mojave Shovel-Nosed snake (Chionactis occipitalis occipitalis) by eryx jhoni, on Flickr

After that, unfortunately, I don't have any more pictures of that night, even though it was quite eventful! We found a large leaf-nosed, and then another glossy on that loop, and on the second time around, me and Rahul found a huge leaf-nosed who refused to leave the road. After much coaxing, he agreed to stop returning to the tarmac, and we headed off to find a campsite for the night. Right as we were pulling up to one, a HUGE glossy was stretched across the road. He must have easily been pushing 4.5 feet. We moved him off the road, and pulled of into the [seemingly] solid earth off the road. As my tires hit it, though, I felt the familiar, dreaded softness of sand. Not wanting to stop and get stuck deeper, I continued to drive steadily, hoping to find a hard place to stop. This was not to be, however, and we hit deep sand and stuck.
After several colorful and choice swearwords, we called Shredsteban and his friend, and asked if they were still in the area. Luckily they were, and they headed to where we were, eventually helping us to get out of the sand by about 3-4 am. Exhausted, we crashed, and woke up a few hours later with the sun, to continue exploring the town.

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Borrego Springs by eryx jhoni, on Flickr

Although we weren't expecting any herps in the day, we found this beautiful Pit out on the crawl in the orange groves.

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Sonoran Gopher snake (Pituophis catenifer affinis) by eryx jhoni, on Flickr

An avid raptor fan, Rahul was excited to see our resident hawk, the Red Tailed Hawk, even if someone else wasn't quite as pleased!

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Red Tailed Hawk by eryx jhoni, on Flickr

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Red Tailed Hawk being attacked by eryx jhoni, on Flickr

After that, we retreated to our trusty park to hide from the sun. As I laid back and played guitar, Rahul spent his afternoon in a battle with a pair of Kestrels, trying to photograph them unsuccessfully. At least, until this!

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American Kestrel by eryx jhoni, on Flickr

That evening, we started driving a bit early, about 6:30 or so, trying for some evening birding before the herps.
As we drove around, I spotted a Burrowing owl, surveying the desert around his burrow. By the time we stopped however, he had disappeared down the burrow, and refused to come out. We agreed to circle back here in the morning to try for him again, and moved on.
That night started out pretty tame, with nothing but a huge, fast, PISSED OFF scorpion to show for our efforts.

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Desert Hairy Scorpion by eryx jhoni, on Flickr

We kept driving for the next hour or two, and saw nothing but a DOR juvenile Sidewinder and a DOR Desert Iguana.
We decided to try the loop from last night again, and boy was that the decision of the century!
We rounded the corner on top of one of the passes, and as we started down, I saw something unusual on the side of the road. It looked like a rattler with a very squashed head, and so I pulled over for us to take a look. However, as I approached it, I saw something very, very different.
I could try to come up with a fitting dramatic intro, but, well, I think I'll let the pictures do the talking.

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Speckled Rattlesnake (Crotalus Mitchellii) by eryx jhoni, on Flickr

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Speckled Rattlesnake (Crotalus Mitchellii) by eryx jhoni, on Flickr

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Speckled Rattlesnake (Crotalus Mitchelli) by eryx jhoni, on Flickr

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Speckled Rattlesnake (Crotalus Mitchellii) by eryx jhoni, on Flickr

I absolutely ADORE the beautiful tail patterns. Remind me of some sort of hand-painted native American murals!

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Speckled Rattlesnake (Crotalus Mitchellii) by eryx jhoni, on Flickr

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Speckled Rattlesnake (Crotalus Mitchellii) by eryx jhoni, on Flickr

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Speckled Rattlesnake (Crotalus Mitchellii) by eryx jhoni, on Flickr

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Speckled Rattlesnake (Crotalus Mitchellii) by eryx jhoni, on Flickr

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Speckled Rattlesnake (Crotalus Mitchellii) by eryx jhoni, on Flickr

Forgive me for the disproportionate amount of Mitchelli pictures, but I fell head over heels for this beauty. :)
And yet again, a more pleasant personality in a rattler I couldn't ask for. This was the mildest of all of them, I almost felt like I could handle it as I would a boa! Of course, I tried no such thing, but if I had, I'm pretty sure I'd have been fine! :D

With the Speckled, our herps for the night were done. Eventually, we conceded defeat, and crawled off to sleep at a more decent hour, so we could catch up on some much needed sleep! :D
The next morning, our last in Anza-Borrego, we swung by the burrowing owls to see if they were home, and indeed, they didn't disappoint!

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Burrowing Owl in flight by eryx jhoni, on Flickr

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Burrowing Owl by eryx jhoni, on Flickr

After that, we began our drive out, stopping on the way for the MAGNIFICENT desert landscape. I am a sucker for deserts, and this one especially blew me away!

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Anza-Borrego by eryx jhoni, on Flickr

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Anza-Borrego by eryx jhoni, on Flickr

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The road out of Anza-Borrego by eryx jhoni, on Flickr

And with that picture, my lengthy, overdue post comes to an end! :)

All in all, it was an incredible weekend, my best herping weekend in years!
The total species tally for the weekend was as follows:
4 Gopher snakes, 3 of them DOR.
11 Shovel Nosed Snakes, 7 DOR.
4 Glossy snakes, 2 DOR.
4 Leaf Nosed Snakes.
1 Southern Pacific rattlesnake.
1 Red Diamond Rattlesnake.
2 Sidewinders, 1 DOR.
1 Speckled Rattlesnake.
1 Desert Iguana, DOR.
2 Burrowing Owls.
Countless other Raptors, Roadrunners, small mammals, etc.
1 Tarantula, species unknown.
2 Desert Hairy Scorpions.

Truly, one of the best weekends in years.
I'll be back soon, Anza-Borrego! I have yet to find my first Rosy's, Long-nosed snakes, or King snakes. :)
Rahul is now off in Oregon, and then the East Coast on the 15th of July. If anyone is in those areas, and wants to show him around, PM me and I'll send you his email address. :)

Thanks for reading this, I know it was long! :D

I'm in L.A, and if anyone ever wants an eager companion for herping, anywhere really, hit me up! I'm always happy to herp, and I'm free till college starts again in August. :)

Happy Herping!
Zeev
dbh
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Re: SoCal Herping roundup 4th-11th of June. (Lotsa Pics!)

Post by dbh »

Nice post and a good herping weekend. You had some luck.
Your American goldfinch looks like a Lesser goldfinch.
The chipmunk is an Antelope ground squirrel.

David
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Re: SoCal Herping roundup 4th-11th of June. (Lotsa Pics!)

Post by fvachss »

Outstanding photographs. The close ups are really impressive.
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MarcLinsalata
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Re: SoCal Herping roundup 4th-11th of June. (Lotsa Pics!)

Post by MarcLinsalata »

These photos are incredible, I need to invest in a nice camera (and learn some photo skills!). I was ironically in Borrego on Monday night for only the second time ever and also found my lifer shovelnose :thumb: amongst other things including a lifer that escaped my camera unfortunately :( . But the most interesting thing is my first time I went to Borrego I was lucky to be in the company of Bill Townsend, and I ALSO left with no camera batteries (they were in my charger at home!!!!).........
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klawnskale
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Re: SoCal Herping roundup 4th-11th of June. (Lotsa Pics!)

Post by klawnskale »

Hi Zeev:
Looks like you had a very productive excursion. Really lovely photos taken by your friend. The speck devouring the K -rat was a nice find. Sorry I didn't make it down to Anza Borrego. I'll have to help you find a rosy and a kingsnake up in the High Desert sometime soon. Wait for the New Moon...
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socalherper
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Re: SoCal Herping roundup 4th-11th of June. (Lotsa Pics!)

Post by socalherper »

Bravo! :thumb: Very nice pictures and narative.

Thanks for taking us with you!
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Re: SoCal Herping roundup 4th-11th of June. (Lotsa Pics!)

Post by hellihooks »

great post... you guys did pretty well. :thumb:
I think your Mojave Shovelnose is a reduced pattern Colorado... head scales are wrong for Mojave, as well as range.
http://www.californiaherps.com/snakes/i ... cz5083.jpg

Unless of course... you got a Variable Groundsnake... like this one

http://www.californiaherps.com/snakes/i ... ivrm09.jpg
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Re: SoCal Herping roundup 4th-11th of June. (Lotsa Pics!)

Post by SurfinHerp »

Very nice post Zeev! 8-)

It was cool to meet you, Nick, and the other guys when I found that red diamond on the edge of the road. I always enjoy bumping into friendly FHF'ers out in the field.
After we parted ways, my group went south like we mentioned and ended up finding 7 more snakes: 3 glossies, 1 leaf-nosed, 1 shovel-nosed, 1 speckled rattler, and finally a rosy boa (at nearly 3am). We also got stopped and held up by the Border Patrol for a little bit.

Hopefully we'll cross paths again someday...

Jeff
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Re: SoCal Herping roundup 4th-11th of June. (Lotsa Pics!)

Post by Chris_VE. »

I absolutely love seeing posts like this one lol incredible photography, and great narration to go with!! I wish I could have made it out with you guys but sadly work had other plans for me during the time you were out there... Also those you were unable to identify were Jeff and his group, and Nick's (shredsteban) friend, is actually not a forum member yet however we are still trying to get him to join lol his name is Keith Summers for anyone who cares. And you also ran into Steve Bledsoe, who is a member and sure to pipe in soon enough lol and the other guy he was with is not a forum member but I know a few from the forum are familiar with was Rich Rang and they had Rich's kids and Steve's grand kids I think based off what Nick told me... I could be wrong on that part. We will let Steve correct me if I am wrong lol over all an extremely successful trip! I am personally jealous lol

-Chris
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Ross Padilla
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Re: SoCal Herping roundup 4th-11th of June. (Lotsa Pics!)

Post by Ross Padilla »

Awesome post!
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