The next weekend was pure madness....
I met up with Tim, Erik, and ChrisNM to herp the Gila for a little bit.
They bought me a present...and after targeting them many many many times, i still havent found my own, damnit.
Senticolis triaspis -- Green Rat Snake
Erik flipped my lifer klaub...
Crotalus lepidus klauberi -- Banded Rock Rattlesnake
And Chris found my lifer of these cuties
Hyla wrightorum --Arizona Treefrog
That night we camped in the Gila, and the next morning we found this guy. He had just caught a Clark's spiny, but let it go when he saw us. Looks like something had been chewing on him too.
Masticophis taeniatus -- Striped Whipsnake
Me holding him- photo by Erik McCromick
Then Chris left us and Erik, Tim and I headed back to the mountains to go on the great obscurus hunt once again. Erik and Tim had found one earlier in the week. I think I cried when i heard. However, this weekend I was DETERMINED to find one, damnit. In the morning we met up with Aaron and Kris and the five of us headed off into those terrible, treacherous mountains where there are illegals, drug smugglers, animals, and plants that may mean you harm, all to look for a small grey snake among small grey rocks.
Tim and Erik asking the herp gods for luck.
Got a little captain in you?
The first snake we encountered was this pretty klaub (found by me!)
The second snake was found by Erik-
in situ C. molossus
The third was found by Tim-
Salvadora grahamiae Mountain Patchnosed Snake
And the grand prize went to Aaron (who was walking about 3 feet in front of me).
Aaron: "Obscurus"
Me: "Shut the f*** up. Don't play like that..."
Aaron: "SERIOUSLY. OBSCURUS." *points down*
Me: "HOLY *%@*&#%&**#@!!!!!"
Crotalus willardi obscurus -- New Mexico Ridgenose Rattlesnake
My favorite shot. My parents are making this a big print for my birthday/Christmas.
For those of you who may not know what C. w. obscurus is, this is the only federally endangered species of rattlesnake. And it's awesome.
Habitat:
Kris...was slackin' and didnt find anything. However, he found the exact same obscurus on Monday (this was Friday)
The horchatas that day never tasted better.
The party broke up after that and only Tim and I were left.
We decided to cruise for Senticolis that evening. We struck out on them, but i thought i saw a snake in the middle of the road. I flipped a quick bitch and pulled up next to it. Tim got out and said "That's a wierd looking longno--- HOLY SH** THAT'S A QUADRANGULARE"
Side note for those who know that area of AZ. This guy was NOT found on the road that everyone finds them on. It was on a different road.
Gyalopion quadrangulare --Thornscrub Hook-nosed Snake
He kept trying to bury himself, so he got sand on his hooknose! So adorable.
"WTF? Quadrangulare?"
Sky shots of that night
So then we drove to a good spot for wil wils. On the way we got this very nigra looking splendida
The next morning dawned perfect for wil wils. We started hiking, not really expecting to see anything (it was still a bit too cold). Ten minutes into the search i looked down and to my right and saw our target.
Me: "I got one. I GOT ONE! A f***ing willardi!"
I had been pretty sad since the other guys had gotten one without me, but now i had my own!
Crotalus willardi willardi -- Arizona Ridgenose Rattlesnake
Herper damage....c'mon guys...
Saw this there too. The crack on my phone screen is fron getting out of the car after hunting klauberi. New phone too
So now Tim and I had the rest of the day to herp somewhere else. We went to another site that we wanted to cruise for the night. We hiked during the day and didnt see any snakes (not surprising since it was over 100), but we did see some mud turtles and this guy
Chiricahua Leopard Frog -- Rana chiricahuensis
I really wanted to find one of these in the Gila where they're quickly disappearing, but I never got a chance to even look, though at one of my sites i heard a few plop!s what were not preceded by the bull frog "eep!". They could have been leopard frogs...
And i saw these butterflies...
This spider lunged at them
First dung-beetle i've ever seen
So that night we cruised and got nothing but cyrtopsis and molossus. Tim learned not to put Windex on cyrtopsis musk.
The next morning we cruised the same road for a little while until I had to take Tim to the airport.
We found this monster.
Diadophis punctatus regalis -- Regal Ringneck
On Tim's leg for size...
So the herping kinda went downhill from there...I mean, seriously...how can you get a better weekend than that?
The next weekend i went down to Eddy CO to visit Erik and find lep leps and sub ocs. We struck out really badly. The only snake we found was this guy
Pituophis catenifer affinis -- Sonoran Gopher Snake (yes, he really was that orange)
And i like these spider shots...
what i do when i can't find snakes....
The next weekend i targeted some more stuff in AZ and struck out on everything...
Did see this...probably explains a little why my cruising was yielding nothing...
The next day i needed to go look for obscurus again. It's my crack snake- no matter how many i see, i know i'll want to see more. So i braved the devil mountains again, this time alone (much to the dismay of my parents)
This was the only thing I found. He buzzed me from 30 feet away while I was standing quietly on a rock. Silly snake.
Also got these guys...
Lampropeltis getula splendida -- Desert King Snake
C. scutulatus
T. marcienus
And this little guy. He seemed to be paralyzed halfway down his body. He would serpentine the first half, and then kinda just drag the second half.
H. n. kennerlyi
His latter half was flimsy. I could twist it in unnatural positions with absolutely no resistance
He was big, though, so he seemed to be doing all right...
You can see where the break is- it's where his scales go from being smooth and healthy to being all torn up.
That night i also found my first glossy...
Arizona elegans philipi -- Painted Desert Glossy Snake
And I cruised my own Tantilla
Ocotillo
And then Chris came. By this time it was the first week of October. Southwest herping season was coming to an end. We did find a few cool things though...
Chris was greeted to Arizona by the sight of rain...
We hiked up these coaches...
Masticophus flagellum cingulum --Sonoran Coachwhip
And hiked up one of these non-natives...
Hemidactylus turcicus -- Mediterranean House Gecko
Love those lamellae
A sleeping clarkii
Uta stansburiana -- Common Side-blotched Lizard
And found another one of these...
C. pricei
Chris jumping over my car for joy after finding his first pricei
And i photographed yet another one of these...
C. scutulatus
We went hiking for klaubs, but all we got were some elgaria, a jarrovi and a cool natural observation
Elgaria kingii nobilis -- Arizona Alligator Lizard
Scoleporus jarrovi -- Yarrow's Spiny Lizard
I watched this mantis catch and then devour a butterfly. Super cool
All done!
The next weekend we went back to Tucson and met up with Young Cage.
Gotta love saguaros!
Cholla is evil though...
"teddy-bear cholla"
Sadly none of Young's adult collared lizards were out, but the babies were and they were super cute!
Crotaphytus collaris -- Sonoran Collared Lizard
Other lizards were out too...
Cophosaurus texanus -- Greater Earless Lizard
Callisaurus draconoides --Zebra-Tailed Lizard
Chris and I went hiking by Young's house and found this little guy
Gopherus agassizii -- Desert Tortoise
Ten Points if you find Chris...
The sun was setting as we climbed down the hill, and some guy had come out and started playing the native american flute. It was so pretty to have the quiet of the desert, the sound of the flute, and the setting sun against saguaros....
Then we met up with Young again and went cruising for crotes. However, the only thing we ended up finding was this coral. Really not a bad tradeoff, in my mind.
Corals are so hard to photograph.....
The next day we drove all the way to go find wil wils. We hiked all day and didnt find anything, so we resorted to photographing invertebrates...
And this little hernandesii Chris spotted
We took a little break, and then came back to the wil wil spot in the evening. I found this patchnose out basking....
And just when we were about to give up, Chris found this baby wil wil
He was a fiesty one!
And then Chris had to leave, but at least he left pretty happy, even though we didnt see nearly as many snakes as I had hinted we would...I was a little wrong in my assumption of what October in Arizona would be like... Oops.
For my very last weekend in AZ i decided to spend it looking for klauberi. I met up with Brandon, and we spent all Saturday herping with no luck. We tried again on Sunday and after bushwacking, slipping, falling, and swearing up a storm, this little guy buzzed me in a small patch of talus
My dad flew in later that day. I took him to Saguaro National Park...
See the redtail sitting in the cactus?
My daddy and a saguaro
Upset saguaro...
And I took him to the boarder between the US and Mexico...
Then back to New Mexico to visit the Gila
The Cliff Dwellings...
Where I found my very last Southwest Herp- a Crevice Spiny. Amusing, because this was also the very first species I saw in the southwest. Funny how those things turn out.
By that time, the leaves were turning in the Gila...
And in northern New Mexico...
My very last look at New Mexico before entering Colorado....
Colorado:
And now I'm back in Ohio
So that's basically it. You've now seen nearly everything i saw in three and a half months of non-stop herping. The funny thing is that it really didnt stop there. I cruised a few more times and hiked for more klauberi (since i seem to have a curse regarding those things) but i never had any luck. After leaving NM, i took my dad to Snake Road as a nice little bit of midwest herping before the season really ended. We got a redbelly, a few western ribbons, tons of cottonmouths, a few yellowbellied watersnakes, and a baby timber. I was going to post those pics on here too, but I figued that would be overkill. If you want to see them, maybe I'll post them as a comment.
There were only two casualties on the trip. My phone (which you saw a pic of) is still alive but cracked, and my camera also suffered a huge crack through it's screen when i slipped a little while hunting for obscurus. It didn't damage the LCD display, just the plastic overlay (thank god).
Thanks for looking. I have no idea how you made it through. You have the patience of a...very patient person. I hope you enjoyed this post as much as I slaved over making it.
Much love,
-Marisa
Oh yeah- here's a link to part three: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4556
He/she has about doubled in size too since that photo. It's doing quite well!
Keep up the good work!
At least you said such when out in the field...I are confoos'ed
