Went night cruising again the other night and found a couple rattlers, a long nose snake, I believe a baby glossy snake (maybe someone can ID for sure), and a couple of desert horned lizards, one dead and one alive.
Is it normal for the desert horned lizards to be out at night? I didn't think it was but I found a crushed one on the road and a few hundred yards down found a second one just kind of laying there.
Also, hopefully you can see in the picture but the first rattle snake, which I believe might be a Mojave rattlesnake, was very fat with scales near its rattle that appeared to be very stretched out. Was this a gravid female? Maybe it just ate a large meal? The scales at the base of the tail were faded in color and appeared stretched. Also very fat in that area. I'm a newbie here so not sure what that was exactly. Also for ID purposes, I read that if the white bands near the rattle in the tail are much bigger than the black bands, that meant it was a mojave rattlesnake as opposed to a diamondback. Is this true?
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Another successful night!
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- MarcLinsalata
- Posts: 562
- Joined: June 7th, 2010, 10:50 pm
- Location: Los Angeles / New Jersey
Re: Another successful night!
That girl is about to pop!!!!!!!!!!
- MarcLinsalata
- Posts: 562
- Joined: June 7th, 2010, 10:50 pm
- Location: Los Angeles / New Jersey
Re: Another successful night!
I've found it pretty common to find horned lizards (and many others) to be pressed against the asphalt at random times at night but especially right after dark.............
Re: Another successful night!
Very cool finds. That crote does look like she is ready to explode isn't she? . I have seen horned lizards o the sides of roads when the sun is going down. Never would have thought they would stay there during the whole night. I wonder if it were to stay warm during the night? Was it getting chilly out?
Re: Another successful night!
The first one is a glossy...I find many species of lizards at night. Sometimes they seem to have just hunkered down. I ve seen everything from leopards and desert igys to side blotched and fences. Oh and yes it does appear to be a gravid scute....
Re: Another successful night!
It was probably about 10pm I found the horned lizard. Still in the mid 80's in terms of temperature.KichiMark wrote:Very cool finds. That crote does look like she is ready to explode isn't she? . I have seen horned lizards o the sides of roads when the sun is going down. Never would have thought they would stay there during the whole night. I wonder if it were to stay warm during the night? Was it getting chilly out?