This Year in PA (and some AZ)

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melissaisdown
Posts: 81
Joined: April 7th, 2012, 12:38 pm
Location: Pittsburgh, PA

This Year in PA (and some AZ)

Post by melissaisdown »

Hi all,

I've not posted in a while but that doesn't mean I don't visit (and lurk) often. And it definitely doesn't mean I've not been herping. Below are my finds for 2017. I'm from SW PA, but have traveled a bit, and even vacationed in AZ last month, so here we go.

This year in PA started with some nice red-spotted newts.
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We also saw a lot of turtles (Eastern Painted and Snapping) early in the year.

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A water snake in a Maryland friend's shed

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And green frogs, many splendid salamanders, toads and garter snakes the past few weeks:

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This toad seemed gravid

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In September we spent a week in Arizona, mostly for vacation, although I anticipated a large percentage of that downtime would be herping. We started in Sedona then gradually worked our way south.

Found a short horned lizard our first day

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And a Sonoran whipsnake on the same trail, in a tree.

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We rode cruised a gopher.

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Las Cienegas NCA
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And came across red spotted toads in two different counties/habitats.

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Patagonia Lake

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7 Falls Trail, Sabino Canyon

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We found a Chuckwalla

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Some desert iguanas at rest stops

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And a few more species of lizards, including this Madrean Alligator Lizard:

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and others

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With the occasional invertebrate ...

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Overall a pretty amazing trip, and not a bad year. I wish I had more free time to herp but don't we all?
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Jimi
Posts: 1955
Joined: December 3rd, 2010, 12:06 pm

Re: This Year in PA (and some AZ)

Post by Jimi »

Cool. Where'd you get that Ctenosaur? Grounds of the museum?

Did you stop at the great pond at Cienegas? The one with the interpretive signs? It's better after dark.

cheers
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TurtleTim
Posts: 38
Joined: December 4th, 2012, 12:27 pm

Re: This Year in PA (and some AZ)

Post by TurtleTim »

Nice shots!

In case you didn't notice, you also have a few Northern map turtles mixed in with your basking Painted turtles.
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Bryan Hamilton
Posts: 1234
Joined: June 10th, 2010, 9:49 pm

Re: This Year in PA (and some AZ)

Post by Bryan Hamilton »

Super cool! That's some good stuff right there. I love all the salamanders and the alligator lizard was really cool too.
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melissaisdown
Posts: 81
Joined: April 7th, 2012, 12:38 pm
Location: Pittsburgh, PA

Re: This Year in PA (and some AZ)

Post by melissaisdown »

Jimi wrote:Cool. Where'd you get that Ctenosaur? Grounds of the museum?

Did you stop at the great pond at Cienegas? The one with the interpretive signs? It's better after dark.

cheers
Thanks!

Yes, the Ctenosaur was near the desert museum, though not quite in it.

And yes, Cienegas was very picturesque and we saw, I think, most of it being that GPS led us in the back way and we got completely lost. We saw the pond, but nothing at night unfortunately. Saw a fox there ( no good picture though) and deer, birds, coyotes. It was definitely a worthwhile drive, despite not producing too many herps.
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melissaisdown
Posts: 81
Joined: April 7th, 2012, 12:38 pm
Location: Pittsburgh, PA

Re: This Year in PA (and some AZ)

Post by melissaisdown »

TurtleTim wrote:Nice shots!

In case you didn't notice, you also have a few Northern map turtles mixed in with your basking Painted turtles.

Okay thank you! I'm not the best at IDing turtles.
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