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.