
June 9th found me hiking at the volcanoes west of Albuquerque during the evening sweet light and just hoping for something to photograph before it was gone. I looked up ahead and saw this beauty of a Prairie Rattlesnake out crawling and knew I’d found it!

Fledgling Mockingbird from that same evening’s hike. There were three off these in a nest in a cholla that had housed a clutch of Thrasher eggs earlier in the season.

June 21st and a Desert Cottontail at Bosque del Apache

June 27th and some rock art. (Space guy walking his coyote by the tail)?

June 29th and an adult and juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron working a drying pool at Bosque del Apache.

Great Egret working the same pool

They didn’t seem to care much for the crayfish, maybe because fish were plentiful.

Juvenile picked one up, but threw it back down without eating it


Dead and dying Bullfrog metamorphs in another drying pool. (In New Mexico that is a good thing).

July 1st and the view right before I got drenched

A nice wet road I was driving down with my heater cranked trying to dry off and warm up

Lightning on the plains west of Albuquerque


July 2nd and a Spiny Softshell crossing a levee road at Bosque del Apache

July 5th and a gravid Lesser Earless Lizard

Rain over Albuquerque

July 8th and lightning over JA volcano

and a rainstorm to the west

The volcanoes, Albuquerque, and the Sandias just after dusk

July 14th and a Hognose Snake cruised west of Albuquerque

July 17th and a Round-tailed Horned Lizard

Male Lesser Earless Lizard

July 23rd- Silver-leaf Nightshade

July 28th and a neonate Greater Earless Lizard at Bosque del Apache

Neonate Western Diamondback cruised on the way home that evening

July 30th and another Lesser Earless Lizard

A female still showing breeding season coloration on July 30th

Later that evening I found the lightest Western Diamondback I have ever seen.

It was striking to see this individual stretched out on the black basalt. Unfortunately I was unable to get any in situ shots before it bolted. Most of the snakes from this location are medium to dark in tone, often reddish. This animal is extremely atypical for this population.

August 1st and a small Massasauga flipped at an illegal dump site

Later that night my girlfriend and I could hear spade foots calling from near hear house. We did a little four-wheeling in the rain and found a chorus of New Mexico Spadefoots…

……..and Couch Spadefoots

August 4th and a Prairie Rattlesnake crawling through an illegal dumpsite

Foraging Gopher Snake at the volcanoes on August 5th

Winter Fat and the Sandia mountains

On August 8th Todd Battey and I were looking for Rock Rattlesnakes and just about the time I was beginning to thing we were going to get skunked Todd got buzzed by this little fella.

Great Plains Skink doing its best Pinacate Beetle imitation on August 11th

Massasauga we cruised that night

August 14th and Couch Spadefoot tadpoles

Same pond, but these are Spea

Thread-leaf Groundsel and Volcan

August 24th and a Massasauga crossing a sand road during the evening sweet light

A truck was coming and I had to move the snake, but I wasn’t about to waste that light. I got off just a couple frames before the sun dipped down below the surrounding vegetation.

Cruised a couple more that night

As well as several Prairie Rattlesnake, including this one that appeared to be foraging along the shoulder. (There was a lot of rodent activity that night as well).

Double Rainbow over Los Pinos mountains on September 4th

Prairie Rattlesnake out on the crawl on September 9th

Glossy Snake just after sunset. Some guy on a motorcycle stopped and watched me lying on the ground as I photographed this snake. Finally the guy said, “Oh, there’s a snake. I wondered what you were doing”.

Neonate Massasauga

On September 11th I stopped and watched this Short-horned Lizard, hoping to photograph it eating harvester ants.

At one point it went back into the vegetation where I couldn’t see it, but it made a quick movement and by the time I was able to maneuver for a view of it, it had almost completely consumed a grasshopper.

Cruised a couple more Massasaugas that night

and a Plains Black-headed Snake

October 9th and a Differential Grasshopper on a Salt Cedar

Visited a den later that day and found a few snakes, including this young Black-tailed Rattlesnake

Same den on the 19th and I found more Blacktails and some Diamondbacks including these 2 in a crack

and this one out on the crawl
So that pretty much sums up my fairly uneventful summer. Its still good to get out and see herps, and birds, and landscapes though. I’m not complaining and who knows what 2015 will bring! Thanks for checking it out!
P.s., sorry for pandering by including the word Massasauga in the title. I am just unabashedly trying to get more views!