Congress area & Bradshaw Mountains

Kelly and I went up to Congress, Arizona for the weekend. I'd seen the only two speckled rattlesnakes (Crotalus mitchelli) that I've ever seen up there, so I thought I'd give it a try and see if I could get some good photos before the year's out. We didn't find one, but did find some other cool stuff. Here's the trip:

Dozens of these Diamondbacks (Crotalus atrox). This one is a baby. The rest we just recorded our data and moved off the road.



One of a few mojave rattlesnakes from the trip. All were yearlings.






Found this young longnose snake with an interesting pattern (in my small bit of experience) for a snake this young. The photograph is terrible, as is the next one of a tiny night snake. Not sure what my problem was.





Last find of the night was an adult California Kingsnake.



The next day we went hiking a bit. We didn't see any herps other than a few whiptails and a skink that escaped my fingers. We did find a few cool mantids.



My first Black-necked Gartersnake.





More diamondbacks ...





I completely did not expect this Crotalus cerberus where we were at, but it was a nice find (my first). We had apparently wandered into their range. Slick.







On the way home we found a little pond full of THOUSANDS of hopping toadlets.

Superstition Mountains, 08/07/07

Took my friend Sonny on his first herping trip. We went to the Superstition Mountains, mostly because it's close, and secondly because I haven't had my fill of lyre snakes for the year.

The first snake we found was my second Coral snake (Micruroides euryxanthus) for the year.





We went further and stopped for some of the local inverts that Sonny hadn't seen before, and eventually found a young California Kingsnake.







The last thing we found was a big Blacktail rattlesnake (Crotalus molossus)











This last one I took some creative time with and photoshopped in a starry night scene. Kinda fantasy-ish cheesy but whatever. Click on it for the full deal.

Sonoran Coral Snake in the rain - 08/04/07

Kelly and I left Friday (August 3) for Nogales, planning to herp along the way, and try and find a Brown Vine Snake the next day. We found a faded-looking Crotalus atrox (Western Diamondback) first. Great rattle on this one.





Then Kelly saw her first snake. It was a very clean looking atrox, so clean in fact that I initially thought it was a C. Scutulatus until I got out of the car. Unfortunately, I had venom from the last atrox on my lense, which killed all my shots.

Blogger is being a retard and won't let me upload any other pictures for some reason. I'll post them later.

We found this as one of only a few snakes on what would have been a very productful night, if it weren't for the heavy rain. Dedicated to taking the long way home to see a snake or two, we found what ended up being the only 'cool' snake of the trip, a small Sonoran Coral snake out in the rain.



Later on I saw a mystery snake (that I guessed was a Black-headed snake of some sort). As I was pulling over to get it, a couple of illegal immigrants with backpacks tried to surrender to us. I guess Kelly's Jeep does look kind of like the border patrol trucks. Not wanting to deal with it, we took off. Hours later we nearly hit a huge California King snake and I failed to find it when I ran back.

Toads were everywhere. Here's one of hundreds of Couch's Toads we found:



And a huge Bufo alvarius (Sonoran Desert Toad):





At the very end of the night, we took a little side trip and found an average-sized Crotalus cerastes cercobombus (Sonoran Desert Sidewinder). Then it was time for sleep.

Crotalus atrox relocation

Not quite a field find. Removed him from a bush in front of a home in N. Scottsdale, Arizona on my lunch break 07-02-07.