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Quick low desert outting

Posted: May 20th, 2016, 3:13 am
by LouB747
I managed to hit the desert last night for my first outing of the year. Despite the moon being close to full, I managed a couple of snakes. A Red Diamondback and a lifer Black Headed Snake. I'm not exactly sure what subspecies of Black Headed it is. Others cruising found more rubers, a rosy boa, and a king snake. Here's a quick video of the finds.

Lou


Re: Quick low desert outting

Posted: May 20th, 2016, 7:22 am
by hellihooks
LouB747 wrote: I'm not exactly sure what subspecies of Black Headed it is.
Probably the isolated population of Smith's... if a Western... quite likely a range extension... :shock:

Re: Quick low desert outting

Posted: May 20th, 2016, 10:27 am
by mattg
Based on the ruber and the frogs/toads in backround i m confident it's a Tantilla planiceps. Very cool video Lou.

Re: Quick low desert outting

Posted: May 20th, 2016, 5:07 pm
by hellihooks

Re: Quick low desert outting

Posted: May 20th, 2016, 7:46 pm
by LouB747
Popular P Springs area road. So I'm guessing it's a western. For some reason I want expecting the belly to be orange. Cool little snake.

Re: Quick low desert outting

Posted: May 20th, 2016, 8:24 pm
by daniel
Cool video Lou! I subscribed to your YouTube channel a little while ago and really enjoy your videos. My daughter loves watching them too!

The species is planiceps. The black cap extends below the corner of the mouth in planiceps, but not in hobartsmithi. In the video (nice quality BTW) there are several moments that show that the cap extends below the corner of the mouth on this snake.

Also it is within the range for planiceps, just near the eastern extent.

Re: Quick low desert outting

Posted: May 20th, 2016, 8:53 pm
by LouB747
Thanks Daniel for both taking the time to watch and also subscribing. I'm glad to hear your daughter watches too!

I wish I would have taken more video, but it was late and I was hoping to find more. The new video camera I got, a Sony AX53, seems to be doing well. It's so much better than the GoPro I was using before. I should mention that this video as well as my last few are all in 4K if that's an option for you.

Thanks for the positive ID and way to ID them in the future. I'm hoping to see another one of these soon.

Lou

Re: Quick low desert outting

Posted: May 24th, 2016, 4:52 pm
by Zach_Lim
Great find, Lou!

Re: Quick low desert outting

Posted: May 24th, 2016, 5:45 pm
by LouB747
Thanks. It's my annual "Kids in the Desert" this coming weekend. Hopefully we find a lot!

Re: Quick low desert outting

Posted: May 24th, 2016, 7:41 pm
by hellihooks
There's a place (out that way) where, when we held the 'Kid's Day' event... I never DIDN'T find a planiceps... :crazyeyes:

Re: Quick low desert outting

Posted: May 25th, 2016, 9:10 pm
by Porter
Nice vid! :thumb: congrats on the lifer. Ive tried a few times for the northern sub with no luck. from what Ive been told, tantilla are a hard species to come across. Both northern and southern/eastrn. Cool snake :beer:

Re: Quick low desert outting

Posted: May 25th, 2016, 9:13 pm
by Porter
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