Amor Towles from A Gentleman in Moscow
Hello Fieldherpers. This is my first post and I am unsure what to say. I learn a lot from your posts for many years. Thank you.
Blacktail in situ then near.
As avid birders in southern Arizona my husband and I found so many snakes by accident, we got interested in herping. Now we bird AND herp all over the Southwest U.S. - especially the Sky Islands. My knowledge is slight compared to many of you, but we are frequently outdoors and so have accumulated many observations to share.
Blackneck garter trying to eat Arizona toad (?) Looked impossible at first.
Each time the snake got an advantage, the toad would jump and drag the snake.
After 30 minutes the garter snake hung from a limbs so the toad’s legs could not touch the ground.
Working against gravity but with the toad unable to hop, the snake swallowed upward until the toad smothered. I have seen other non-constrictor colubrids employ this strategy (e.g. Masticophis) to subdue large prey. The small snake swallowed the deflated toad with no too much difficulty. The whole process was 90 minutes.
In situ blacktail next to river.
When we are birding we find many banded rock rattlesnakes because they rattle a lot. We start to really like this species because they are so variable and angry.
As you know, banded rock rattlesnakes are sexually dimorphic for size and color. Males are larger and greener. A breeding pair.
Please understand we release ALL herps where found. Putting these beauties in a cage would be joyless. Selling them would be shameful.
We sometimes use binoculars to spot snakes from a long distance. We walked softly to this Arizona ridgenose (my favorite rattlesnake), take many pictures, and leave without the snake moving.
Another in situ black tail. Unfortunately other Sky Island montane rattlesnake species are not so easy to photograph in situ because they dive fast.
60F in hard rain
Female banded rock rattlers are coloured like the rocks where they live. Males usually are not.
1. Never stow your camera while the animal is still visible.
2. When your counterparts stow their cameras too soon, nudge the snake into a new photogenic posture, continue taking photos, and smile waiting for them to swear and begin unpacking.
The male of this mating pair look to me like a female.
This Sonoran ground snake was digging in the shade of a big rock for >10 minutes.
Sleeping leopard lizard in situ
We moved this long nose off the road and a diamondback was right there.
We were very surprised to find these 2 species side-by-side under one rock.
Sorry, I have some technical difficulties I will try to fix next time. I hope you like some of these images anyway.
Chao,
Goose
what a beautifully colored gartersnake eating that toad. I like that shot of the reddish horned Liz. Also the shot of the leopard lizard asleep on the road at night. I’ve seen side-blotched lizards doing that in the desert . Never a lizard that large though
we have a birding section down at the bottom. It’s common for a field Herper to take to birding. Flipping snakes gets boring after a while… So they start flipping the bird instead 
I say flip away 
Everyone probably appreciates birds here