Well... Phil (PNW) arrived in the (this year at least) No-jave, to collect data for his Herp tracking book... and as most of us know, it's kinda early in an atrocious (rain-wise) spring. But... when you have a trip planned... ya gotta try... so....
We first tried at certain place that I knew to have swaths of fine sand amongst lava tubes/extrusions, where most of the herps are really dark, if not downright melanistic.
Conditions were not good and bout the only thing we saw were dark SB's...

The Lava tubes were (as always) trippy, specially if you've never seen them before, like Phil, and Josh and Lucas, who had joined us to help collect track & sign data


After seeing very little track we headed for other places... where we got data on night lizards, desert gecko, Sb's, Zebra, and a lot of other types (birds/mammals) of track and sign. I didn't take that many pics, as lots of stuff were lifers for some of our group, and I don't like to risk dlb data entries... so when others will be entering the data....I leave the pics to them (nothing I haven't seen before... )
I do however, take a few voucher shots if and when I get REALLY lucky...


Given the current conditions, I did NOT expect to see this little girl out, and my advice to anyone hoping to see hi-d rosys is... save your gas...
Josh and I cruised this pretty little gold GB on the way home...

Since the conditions were so bad up here, this morning Phil and I headed down the hill, to try and find several other target species... some for track/sign data, others just to see...




Phil flipped his lifer legless lizard, so was pretty stoked, and I was both relieved and surprised... it was SO DRY... no skinks, SAL's, ect... I did not think we'd see one. Sorry... no Pics (by me).
I THOUGHT that was gonna be the highlight of the day, but later, back up the hill, Phil found what he wanted to see, bout most... and it was so pretty I couldn't resist a couple of pics of this little nickel-sized gem...



All in all, a very fun, very different kind of herping adventure, and I learned a BUNCH about track and sign... which was very cool and will certainly stand me in good stead, in the future. Thx Phil... I look forward to your return, when conditions improve...
Hang in there everybody... it'll be getting better soon... jim

Oh yeah... turns out this was a lifer experience for Phil, as well... herping by ATV...always fun...

Nice finds guys! Glad you scored some finds and data as well.. This rain should bring some more stuff out..

Wow, that boa looks like a screamer ...like a San Felipe even. You found it in a crack? Great job! ...Night Lizard tracks? Congrats on the hard work and persistence.

Great stuff, Jim. You managed to set expectations low at the beginning, and then make me thoroughly jealous by the end. Thanks! I'm glad Fil got to see some more interesting things down there. It was pretty slim pickings here in Santa Cruz when he passed through.

JimM

I really should have stayed and went with you and Phil...... .....Legless Lizard would be a lifer for me too... ...I'm glad you guys got to see some more stuff though!

Thats a really sweet lookin' lil Gopher too! Its funny cause the DOR Phil and I seen Wednesday night was really contrasting! If you ask me it was fun just sharing stories, looking for sign, and get outside for a while! If not for this little outing I probably would have snapped and started flipping furniture in my house looking for escapee crickets and night lizards from last year!!! Can't wait for the rain and some warmer weather! I definitely wanna attend some more outings this year!

BTW, That really was a nice of one of those "three-lined snake thingys"....

-Luke

Looks like an awesome outing. Those desert rosys look amazing. Man I wanna see those lava tubes eventually...

Duuude! That place is gnarly! Lava tubes, lizards, and herping by ATV? Awesome! Sign me up, Jim

Jim,

That boa is really nice.. Is that the best pictures you have of it..

Fundad

Jim, you guys did very well, all things considered. A boa, a legless lizard and a horned lizard - finding any one of these is hard, especially out where you are.

But, PLEASE, Josh, Lucas and Phil, post your pictures, will you?

Robert

No sh!t, exactly my question ...but ya gotta forgive Jim ...he's photographically challenged.

i had a blast! we may not have found much, but it was great meeting lucas and fil, and what we did find was pretty awesome!

that habitat was definitely pretty insane.


those dark side-blotched lizards were a trip.


and that boa was ORANGE!


all and all it was a great day!
josh

oh, and one more thing, when we got to the lava tubes the air temp was about 66 degrees, but the rock was already reading 108!

Unfortunately I was lacking in the camera department......this time... ...my apologies next time I will definitely have some pics to share!


Josh: Great shots man, I'm glad you got me failing to find anything!

Glad someone can take a decent photo ...that boa is richter man! Congrats!!!

Thx all...Josh and Fil had matching NICE cameras... so none of my shots were gonna compare anyways... so... snap a voucher or two, and get back to herping. I believe I actually have a reputation for that...
I was getting 'Murphy'd' pretty good... every time I said the word 'guaranteed'... we'd get skunked at that spot, for the herp in question...
By the end of the day I was saying "I guaranteed we MIGHT see something"...
Only thing I can figure was that rosy was out looking for a drink or food... last thing I expected to see, then and there. I was looking for chucks/specks... in red lava...
Fil's legless and HL were the real finds of the day...targeted and found by Fil, which was the coolest part... always nice when YOU actually find YOUR lifer... jim

That Boa is a beauty! Come on Josh throw up a better pic of that GB Gopher!

-Isaac

Jim, it's not the camera ...it's the light angle, the exposure, pose, the distance ...heck, in that GB image, it's almost hard to tell it's a snake or just a shot of the road. ...but then, you can't find anything if you're too busy taking pictures. ...that is one awesome boa and that is the BIG deal ...great job and a well deserved find for all your hard work ...it'd make my year to find a boa that nice out on the crawl!

Hey... it was cold, windy, and a car was coming... so... insitu ... off the road, and away we go... Also...my camera has a scratched/scuffed lens, so even when I try to take good pics, they are invariably flawed. So... it's voucher shots for the foreseeable future...
Here... I cropped it a bit, for ya...

You WERE invited Brad... never find a boa sitting on the couch... jim

...apparently not but then, it's at least $60 in gas and a 3 hour trip one-way. Heck, if we had boas here in Ventura County I'd be eating 'em for dinner.

Cool GB btw, thanks

Yeah...I hear ya... same way for me, for striped Kings... hows your early April look? jim

Well, was hoping it would warm up enough in the E. Mojave for next weekend but looks like it's gonna stay pretty cool. Probably better to bop out to your area for a mid-elevation attempt. Seems like it might be just right. How much rain did you get?

Got soaked pretty good Sat...On and off Snow today (Sun) My next herping I have planned is April Fools/ 2nd... showing some out of state Nafha officers around. Dude... I WISH I could herp more, this year... but gotta work like crazy to get back in the black, now that the housing market's making a comeback. Sad to say, most of my herping this year will be 'ride-alongs' as the 'Mojave Guide' on trips planned months ago. But... that's cool... I enjoy seeing people score lifers and get all worked up over stuff I'm used to seeing. Reinvigorates my appreciation for the bunch of cool herps I get to see, where I live, that I so often take for granted... jim

Like that for me with birds ...or anything else that is. As much fun sharing someone's else's excitment over what we've gotten used to. ...and that boa you got a bonus payback.

More moisture possible next weekend or too cold for high elevation so April 1st will probably be the earliest for me ...hiked my life Lyre last year on "Fool's Day".

I'm glad we got what little rain we got here in Barstow! Temps look like they are gunna warm up a little by the middle of the week so I'm thinkin I'm goin a lookin for groundsnake....

Capitol idea ...best of luck

Thanks to Hellihooks, LucasB and GeckoGuy747 for a great outing day. Here are a few of additional pics from that outing. I will have to make several posts of my own to show some of the other stuff from this 2 week trip.



Jim (Hellihooks) checks out a lava tube archway while Josh (geckoguy) looks on.



Yes, the side-blotched lizards were very dark! Never seen them so dark before.



Although we did not see any, we knew there were chuckwallas out there. Lucas found this nice little fragment of chuck shed.

Since Josh shared a nice pic of the rosy, I will just post a close up of its pattern.



Fantastic animal! First wild rosy I have seen. Nice find, Jim! A very nice "3 lined thingy."



Nice male banded gecko I flipped under some AC.



This is a nice desert night lizard found at the same location under AC.



Same lizard, different perspective. We found several in this same area. I got some nice tracks from them too. More pics to come in my posts soon...

GeckoGuy, Lucas and Hellihooks...

That scat we found to be so plentiful among the cracks and crevices at the black lava site was indeed that of chuckwalla. After having seen lots of and lots of chuckwalla scat since that time I now definitely recognize it. Just thought I'd mention it, cause if you go back you should expect to see lots of chucks!

Yeah those tubes are a trip! I visited them my first time recently and my girlfriend was terrified when i went down in one and started screaming after she mentioned Hills have eyes I kinda didnt want to go back in one ha. That Boa is sweet an the gopher. I want to visit out there sometime to herp instead of just sight seeing like my previous trip.