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Locations
Dates
Weather
Species Summary California Mountain Kingsnake - 2 LIF Sierra Garter Snake - 1 LIF / 1 DOR Mojave Glossy Snake - 4 AOR / 1 DOR Gopher Snake (intergrade?) - 4 AOR NOrthern Pacific Rattlesnake - 2 DOR Gilberts Skink - 7+ LIF Western Fence Lizard - TMTC Tiger Whiptail Lizard - TMTC Southern Alligator Lizard - 2+ LIF Side-blotched Lizard ? Desert Night Lizard 2 LIF Desert Spiny Lizard - (Will?) Long-nosed Leopard Lizard - (Will?) Desert Horned Lizard - 1 AOR Western Toad - 2 AOR Pseudacris wtf? - TMTC calling 
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After a long and winding drive through the foothills I met Will, his wife Rachelda and their pug, Smiguel, in the Greenhorns around 11:00AM.
Once we got the campsite set up we tried some herping along a small creek looking for good flips in sunlit patches. After only about 10 minutes, Will called out that he had found something which turned out to be one of our targets. He had flipped the Sierra Mountain Kingsnake under a football sized rock on a small stone pile and as I got there he was restraining it from disappearing down a hole in the rubble.
Once we secured the snake Will started putting the stones back in place and noticed another very different snake peering out from under a rock directly adjacent to that under which the kingsnake was found. Amazing! What a hot little stone pile that was but Will was anxious to find a Ring-necked so we headed off with the intention of returning later that afternoon for further investigation. Our next stop was by the highway and looked fairly promising with lots of flippable rocks along another small stream. We managed to flip a few Gilbert's Skinks but nothing else so decided to move down slope to have a look around. We didn't find any really promising areas to work and I was anxious to get back to the first area before the sun got too low. We searched hard there for well over an hour but there were no situations quite as promising as that where Will had flipped the two snakes. I did flip a scorpion and found a couple skinks in a crack but that was it for us both. A couple more short forays then we called it a day and returned to camp. Our camp neighbors a large, noisy group so we decided to pack it up and move on to another area where we'd be the only ones. We spent the cold evening hanging out by a nice warm fire. It was nice to have some company for a change as most of my trips are solo. Rachelda is bright woman with a cheery disposition and good sense of humor. Even Smiguel proved a happy camper!
Morning at the campsite was alive with spring bird song. western tanager, black-headed grosbeak, yellow warbler and olive-sided flycatcher were among the chorus.
Will wanted to go down west again to try again for Ring-necked but I was intent on finding my own "Z" so we split up and I headed for a steep hillside with occasional boulder outcroppings which might host my quarry. The hillside overlooked a rich, beautiful mixed forest of Black Oak, Incense Cedar, Jeffery Pine and Manzanita.
I found a huge Southern Alligator Lizard basking in the deep grass which proved to me my search image was functioning to reveal cryptic patterns which might save me from a rattlesnake bite.
The outcroppings were widely spaced and the hiking was very tough so after about an hour I headed down via a woody draw in which I found this likely hideout. I shined the crack with my pocket mirror and was thrilled to catch a glimpse of brilliant scarlet deep within. There was no way to safely extricate the snake as it moved even deeper out of sight. This was the first time I had actually "shined" a snake and I was happy enough just to enjoy the discovery, especially since Will's find the day before afforded a great photo opportunity of this species.
I gradually made my way down to lower elevations and the nearby town where I had planned to meet Will et al for pizza at a popular joint, The Pizza Brrn, owned by a well known Kern County herper, Brad Alexander. Will reported having found some good habitat but no snakes. Hopefully the superb pizza offered some consolation;-)
By and by we made our way to Kelso Valley where we found a suitable location to make camp. I decided to take off back to the Kern County Preserve for a short hike and then explore the surrounding area prior nightfall. Shortly before sunset, while driving up the valley I flushed a couple Ravens and a Turkey Vulture up from the road where I expected to find some roadkill but happily found a live Gophersnake instead! The Gopher Snakes in this area seem to share characteristics of both the Pacific and Great Basin subspecies although to my eye favor the former.
Will and I decided to cruise separately to maximize our chances of a good find. Temps seemed good enough early on but were dropping quickly and ultimately the evening provided little action other than a few young gophers and glossies despite our searching till well after 10PM. I found this little glossy on three consecutive passes. It was unusually aggressive for this species and repeatedly lunged so forcefully as to clear the ground!
We both took the same long dirt road out the following morning but I left about a half hour earlier which seemed to make a lot of difference as I had only a handful of whiptails while Will found Horned Lizards, Spinys and a nice adult Gopher! I can't say it was an especially successful trip but there were enough highlights to make it worthwhile. I enjoyed the good company and learned more about the Greenhorns which I had been curious to understand, so all in all it was a good trip. |
