|
Locations
Dates
Weather
Species Summary 
|
I met Will (a.k.a. Fieldnotes) Friday evening at a prearranged location in the Eastern Mojave to put in a few days herping. Even though Will patiently accomodated my need to searach for what he called "elementary herps", the focus of this trip was more about confirming the range of a couple species which were a little tougher to find. A warming trend had begun Thursday and temps were supposed to rise through Monday so we hoped for decent conditions, even at higher elevations where we planned on spending some time. Just before Will showed up I had some good luck to cruise a couple Patch-nosed Snakes in the late afternoon but they both got away, hence no photos. After that we hiked a wash before setting off for a night of cruising.
Conditions were cool but should have produced more than just the one Long-nosed we finally found on our last pass. The next morning produced some fun stuff. Early cruising worked pretty well.
If there's one thing I always seem to find it's the ever popular Desert Tortoise
The Great Basin Gopher Snakes in this area are especially "clean" looking. This young one was extremely uncooperative.
Will kindly posed this more cooperative Desert Horned Lizard for me.
A walk in the sand offered some more action.
Will showed me how to find the Long-tailed Brush Lizard but I still need some practice as he found six of the cryptic critters to my one. Definitely a different kind of lizard which likes to be one with the branch.
I've seen plenty of Mojave Fringe-toed Lizards, but alwasy running away to disappear in the dunes. Will has it down though and a little well-coordinated team work really helps if you need a photograph.
Higher up, at a new location, we added a Desert Night Lizard to our species tally.
Further on up the road we got a good look at a gravid female Long-nosed Leopard Lizard.
There was some truly spectacular scenery in this area.
Our second night was cooling off more quickly than we had hoped and after last evenings poor showing we weren't too optimistic, but early evening was reasonably active, producing six herps all of different species. Two not shown here are a freshly hit Gopher Snake and a DOR Patch-nosed which met its fate sometime after 9PM, way late for this species to be out, especially on such a cool evening.
It was about time we found a Mojave Glossy Snake
One of these days I'll keep a Mojave Desert Sidewinder overnight for photos but until then this seems to be as good as I can do.
Not sure I'll ever tire of the common but handsome and highly variable Long-nosed Snake.
Don't laugh, but this is the first Banded Gecko I've seen since I was 15 years old! Cool lizards and fun to watch move.
The next morning found us on a long, rough road, climbing well above the desert floor. Here's Will pushing the limits of his 2 wheel drive Exterra. It's not obvious in the photo how nasty this little piece of dirt really is...worse case here would be a trashed truck and a huge towing bill. Will doesn't care, he's got his eye on the pie-in-the-sky.
But a man's got to know his limitations and we soon found ourselves packing-up and hoofing it.
Well, 'nuff said about that. The drive down produced some great photo-ops for Zebra-tailed Lizard.
On the way to another area I happened upon this fighting pair of Long-nosed Leopard Lizards which were more concerned with each other than with me.
The apparent winner cooperated nicely for photographs.
We were surprised at the expanse of this high plateau which was a new area for both of us.
Shortly after a large Red Coachwhip eluded my capture attempt we happened upon this large and colorful Great Basin Gopher Snake. NOTE: On our return we met her presumed mate at the exact same point in the road, obviously following her scent trail.
We took a late afternoon walkabout to search some rock outcroppings and I almost stepped on this young Mojave Rattlesnake hidden amongst the grass tussocks. Finally we headed back down to lower elevations and our evening cruise was greeted by much higher temps than the two previous nights, but the activity was surprisingly slow, three sidewinders and a gecko being the only live animals found. The next morning we awoke to a heavy overcast and cool breeze indicating a frontal system was passing through. I have to wonder if that was what kept the road so quiet. Thanks to Will for sharing his expertise and all the patient teamwork finding critters and setting up photographs. Overall a really fun trip for an elementary grade field herper. |
