NW Nevada, Memorial weekend, DUW! cool video added

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AndyO'Connor
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NW Nevada, Memorial weekend, DUW! cool video added

Post by AndyO'Connor »

I am starting off with a quick defense of some pictures that will reveal some of the locations we herped at in advance that those locations are heavily patroled by rangers, and are not easy access, so if anyone wanted to use the photos to figure out a good area to poach, we were questioned at least once every day on what we were up to and offered to show that we were not collecting anything. We were told by one that just that fact that we were picking lizards up for pictures was against the rules but since it was obvious we were doing no harm he let us continue with a polite warning.

I hate starting off like that but I don't want anyone to think I normally would post scenery shots in vulnerable areas because I don't. We had originally planned on herping the Alvord desert basin in south eastern Oregon the same as 2009 but were very discouraged by weather forecasts. We did make a stop in Oregon and saw a striped whipsnake sunning but it retreated under a huge rock, we also saw several fence lizards running about. This was the first thing I woke up to in the back seat that morning however.

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We saw a lot of interesting birds during the drive also.

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I will attach a couple videos at the end that show why we decided to head south for the winter (even though we were in the desert at the end of May... but here's a picture that shows the muddy watter from the rain running into a creek.

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A fence lizard that braved the storm before we left Oregon for Nevada.

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Thanks for hanging in there for some herps, because it was hard for me to on this trip, but once we got into northwestern Nevada in the Black Rock desert playa, we finally found some cool stuff, a big target for all of us was a little variable snake, the gorund snake, even though every single specimen we found ending up being the same morph.

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little twins

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While flipping ground snakes, we found a leopard lizard out despite the clouds, and then a racer was found.

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Some more scenery shots along the way.

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We ended up at a really cool spot some may recognize in pictures to follow, and the place is stuffed to the gills with lizards. Most common species seen were spiny lizards.

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This picture makes me happy I am a big human being and not a little invertebrate!

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The rest of the weekdays were scheduled to be overcast and cool until Saturday and Sunday before Memorial day when we'd be driving back to Washington, so we were forced to flip rocks and not expect much. We found more ground snakes which was nice.

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This adult spazzed out and gave us a nice ventral shot.

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The rock pile near our chosen camp offered a nice view of camp, and these nestling ravens.

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A horned lizard was flipped.

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It finally started to get sunny and while walking sandy areas we saw lots of tracks including signs of combat/mating, most likely gopher snakes.

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With the sun came our target lizard, zebra tailed lizards!

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Mack is better than following the tracks than I am and he turned up 3 or 4 snakes this way. the gopher snakes showed some really cool variability.

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He also found this lutosus in situ.

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Flipped it and got a good look, then let it back into its hide.

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I wanted to find a coachwhip reeally bad since the whipsnake got away and I consider myself Mr. Masticophis in our group, so I was getting really discouraged not seeing ANY out in ideal habitat. As we were walking back to the truck, some rustling in the grass behind me made me look over my should in time to see a tan streak crossing the path I had just taken, I immediately yelled snake, dove, fully laid out horizontal in the air, and made a double handed grab on this beauty!

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While driving around scanning rocks for collards, we noticed a large bird of prey, which I decided needed further inspection. I am glad i did, it let me get fairly close before taking off with its trophy!

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Soon after that we found a few collards.

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We also found more leopard lizards including my favorite kind, a screamer of a female.

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Our biggest goal for the trip was the only species in the area that would be a lifer for all 3 of us, longnose snakes. Since we struck out on patchnose snakes which Josh and I had seen 2 of in the Mojave in 2008, we started cruising early evening Sunday. At 5:30-6pm in full sunlight, close to 80 out, this little thing got hit about a minute before we got to it...

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I was angry, but that only got worse when we saw two more, larger specimens hit, one still a squirmer later that night, and a 4th that escaped off the road while we waited for a couple cars to pass before we could turn around... So we made a very productive trip out of the weather and time we were provided, and we have fallen in love with herping northwestern Nevada and have decided to return there again around the same time next year. I will post videos from the trip today when I get home and can upload them. Here's a sunset pano from camp. I hyperlinked it since it's so wide, i didn't want the text stretched so everyone has to scroll left to right to read the whole thing.

http://s906.photobucket.com/albums/ac26 ... gsaw6c.jpg

Here's a video of a young male Zebra tailed lizard being very cool. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1WMPLbvGjg
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Chris Mac Donald
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Re: NW Nevada, Memorial weekend, DUW!

Post by Chris Mac Donald »

yep, tahts pretty much the trip in a nut shell!! nice job andy. you did a really good job on that sunset shot too, turned out excellent!!!! :beer:
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AndyO'Connor
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Re: NW Nevada, Memorial weekend, DUW!

Post by AndyO'Connor »

I'm waiting to see your shots of the coachwhip, I have a few full body shots but I'm not really excited about any of them. I took over 400 shots, and the thing I am most proud of is the video of the baby zebra tail, which I will post later.
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Schell
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Re: NW Nevada, Memorial weekend, DUW!

Post by Schell »

Looks like a sweet trip. Very productive shot. How did you manage to get a dozen-ish ground snakes in one shot???
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klawnskale
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Re: NW Nevada, Memorial weekend, DUW!

Post by klawnskale »

Very nice post and nice animals. When I see your photos of the Black Rock playa area, it makes me question even more the existence of the annual "Burning Man" event. I think the attendees and organizers are really not aware of how sensitive that habitat really is. Because to their eyes, they see 'nothing" they think there is 'nothing' there to impact.
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AndyO'Connor
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Re: NW Nevada, Memorial weekend, DUW!

Post by AndyO'Connor »

Yeah we saw signs for the burning man and it made me cringe. When the ground gets wet the ground snakes are right on the surface under surface rocks, and we found a few that had been squished long before we got there.

In that pic we had 6-8 ground snakes and basically i got ready while Mack held them all under his hand. he pulled back quickly and I took the shot as wuick as I could, but you can only see 6 and most of them made it out of frame. That shows you how photographing them went, even individually, most of the time.
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Joshua Wallace
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Re: NW Nevada, Memorial weekend, DUW!

Post by Joshua Wallace »

That was a great trip. I can't wait till next year. I will try to get my pics up here.
mikemike
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Re: NW Nevada, Memorial weekend, DUW!

Post by mikemike »

Great post, Andy. Looks like an awesome trip.
cgparis
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Re: NW Nevada, Memorial weekend, DUW!

Post by cgparis »

Wow you killed it out there! The tail on that gravid Gambelia is just insane. Great post.
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monklet
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Re: NW Nevada, Memorial weekend, DUW!

Post by monklet »

Great post, lots of variety in shots and species...really fun and informative.
AndyO'Connor wrote:the ground snakes are right on the surface under surface rocks, and we found a few that had been squished long before we got there.
Not quite sure what you mean here? Other herpers smashed 'em by flipping/dropping? "Burning Man" crap?

To my eye and on my monitor that Coachwhip looks just a bit greenish and that's wierd becasuse I just saw another NV post and that one looked the same???
http://southwesternherp.com/cgi-bin/yab ... 1276739391

Must have been awesome to follow tracks to a snake.
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AndyO'Connor
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Re: NW Nevada, Memorial weekend, DUW!

Post by AndyO'Connor »

I don't know if it was other herpers, (I would be surprised if this area saw any other herpers but maybe once a year, it looked pretty unflipped) burning man people, heavy animals, or just an animal that died under the rock and looked smashed, but I think we found 2 like that. The coachy was much better than i anticipated compared to what I had seen in our field guide that had a pic of one from the same area, I am pretty sure my pic is accurate to its true color, but Josh and Mack both took some pictures, so I guess they should post and we can see if maybe my camera was off.
Paul White
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Re: NW Nevada, Memorial weekend, DUW!

Post by Paul White »

The birds and scenery were worth the price of admission even before the herps...neat place. I have to go birding there sometime.
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Carl Brune
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Re: NW Nevada, Memorial weekend, DUW!

Post by Carl Brune »

Nice post. It's all good, but I particularly like the ground snakes and the scenery.
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AndyO'Connor
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Re: NW Nevada, Memorial weekend, DUW! cool video added

Post by AndyO'Connor »

Thanks guys. Sorry to bump my own thread, but i added a video from the trip to the original post and I really think some might enjoy it.
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Fundad
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Re: NW Nevada, Memorial weekend, DUW! cool video added

Post by Fundad »

cool adventure from a place rarely posted on.. :thumb:

Thanks for sharing :beer:
Fundad
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Joshua Wallace
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Re: NW Nevada, Memorial weekend, DUW! cool video added

Post by Joshua Wallace »

That video is amazing. I love at the end when the lizard is trying to climb up onto the camera gets freaked out and zoooms off like a rocket.
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RenoBart
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Re: NW Nevada, Memorial weekend, DUW! cool video added

Post by RenoBart »

Awesome post. Next time you guys are down here, let me know. I'm going to PM you.

Bart
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Joshua Wallace
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Re: NW Nevada, Memorial weekend, DUW! cool video added

Post by Joshua Wallace »

We will be sure to let you know the next time that we are down. The original plan was to stay up in the Alvord and maybe go into Nevada a bit, instead we kept of going more and more south to escape the crappy weather
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AndyO'Connor
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Re: NW Nevada, Memorial weekend, DUW! cool video added

Post by AndyO'Connor »

Here's a video of when we first arrived in the original destination. It has Josh talking gibberish like usual. There a little glitch in the beginning where I tried to edit out Josh dropping the F-bomb to keep the video mostly kid safe.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hgweo48FR-0
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Ross Padilla
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Re: NW Nevada, Memorial weekend, DUW! cool video added

Post by Ross Padilla »

Great post, Andy. You guys found some very cool stuff. The scenery is amazing. :thumb:
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atheris978
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Re: NW Nevada, Memorial weekend, DUW! cool video added

Post by atheris978 »

That's living!!!
Awesome post. Keep 'em coming...
Sean Lundy
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Re: NW Nevada, Memorial weekend, DUW! cool video added

Post by Sean Lundy »

Nice guys looks like you made the best of a tough situation.
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