fieldherping.eu

Amazing shots, stunning landscape photography! Many familiar places for me, brings back happy memories!

Congratulations, beautiful wife!

But I do not believe that you have not searched and photographed rattlesnakes!

We want the rattlesnakes!

Jurgen

Huge congratulations on your re marriage to coin an English phrase "you a seriously punching above your weight"
Great pictures, now stop teasing.. where are the rattle snakes..

A Crotalus story – one afternoon we drove a small road (Speed 45 Miles) to the Wupatki national monument, Temperatures 40° Celsicus and I saw a rattlesnake on the other side of the road.
In the same moment I saw a car coming around the curve on the other side of the road.
Parked the car, opened the Belt, picked up my Gloves (all in less than a Second) and run to the Snake. I reached the Snake before the car arrived, but I was some hours to late.



All in all I saw 3 Rattlesnakes on the road, the other two were flat like paper, and one fresh killed Masticophis flagellum. That`s it, not more Snakes!!!

I know I`m a big disappointment for you all and especially for myself!!
But here are my excuses,
The complete area has the longest time without rain ever!
It was so dry that you felt, one Spark and all burns down. They had a big wildfire around Sedona before we arrived.
The night Temperatures in the Sedona and Flagstaff area were good, around 18° Celsius, but the Temperatures during the Day raised up very fast and at noon we had between 38 and 40° Degrees.
I made a road cruising one night, one hour but there was not a Single animal on the road.

The Las Vegas area was hotter, we had 35° Degrees at 8:00 in the morning and 45° around noon.
The peak was Death Valley, 51°Degrees.
On the last night at Phoenix area I tried road cruising again, after one hour I saw a rat on the road, a half hour later I broke it up, senseless, But temperatures were around 33° Degrees.
Also I don`t found two Lizards that were on Top of my wishlist, the horned Lizard (Phyrosoma) and the Chuckwalla (Sauromalus).
It was too hot and to dry.

So here are the few animals I saw,







I found only one Amphibian-Species, the not Arizona native Bullfrog (Lithobates catesbeianus)


Gila Spotted Whiptail (Aspidoscelis flagellicauda)


Pai Striped Whiptail (Aspidoscelis pai)


Tiger Whiptail (Aspidoscelis Tigris) Ugly!


Tiger Whiptail (Aspidoscelis Tigris) nicer!


Tiger Whiptail (Aspidoscelis Tigris) the nicest!


Plateau Striped Whiptail (Aspidoscelis velox)


Greater Earless Lizard (Cophosaurus texanus) female


Greater Earless Lizard (Cophosaurus texanus) male


Greater Earless Lizard (Cophosaurus texanus) male


Greater Earless Lizard (Cophosaurus texanus) male



Eastern Collared Lizard (Crotaphytus collaris)


Eastern Collared Lizard (Crotaphytus collaris)


Eastern Collared Lizard (Crotaphytus collaris)


Common Lesser Earless Lizard (Holbrookia maculata) female


Common Lesser Earless Lizard (Holbrookia maculata) female


Common Lesser Earless Lizard (Holbrookia maculata) male


Common Lesser Earless Lizard (Holbrookia maculata) male


Clark's Spiny Lizard (Sceloporus clarkii)


Common Sagebrush Lizard (Sceloporus graciousus)


Desert Spiny Lizard (Sceloporus magister)


Desert Spiny Lizard (Sceloporus magister)


Desert Spiny Lizard (Sceloporus magister)


Plateau Fence Lizard (Sceloporus tristichus)


Long-tailed Brush Lizard (Urosaurus graciosus)


Ornate Tree Lizard (Urosaurus ornatus)


Common Side-blotched Lizard (Uta stansburiana)


The only Lizard I saw (3 times) and don`t got in a pic was the Desert Iguana (Dipsosaurus dorsalis), too fast for an old man.

That`s it!!!

While I can understand your frustration of not seeing snakes there, especially at night, you presented some nice lizards species in your last post, not to forget the wild desert landscape which look amazing! I would recommand to wait another decade and travel there in April, it should be heaven Congrats for your second commitment

Beautiful dress, Jürgen. I hope to meet you in the field in this outfit, sometimes.
Btw.: Fantastic lizards there...

From a herping point of view I can see why you'd be a little disappointed, still sounds a like a great trip, though

Oh, and nice lizards, btw. If I make it out west when I go visit my sister in Texas it seems I'll have to read up a little on Aspidoscelis and perhaps Sceloporus first. Otherwise I could end up with a lot of unID'ed

Smashing scenery and loved the bighorn. I know about these brutal temperatures from California 2011, although this year seems exceptionally harsh. The only solution is to keep cruising all night, try to reach higher altitude and be satisfied with 1 snake per night at best. You should have gone as high up the Mogollon Rim as possible to look for cerberus . I think Phrynosoma is very hard in that kind of conditions, chuckwalla maybe less but still... I guess it takes a European many years to adapt to those conditions as well. I'm curious to see how Bob & Laura will do further west and north.

Wow, what an amazing scenery! Your photo compilation made me look forward to going to the desert in a few days even more! The background information about the current conditions on the other hand worried me a bit...

Jeroen Speybroeck wrote:I'm curious to see how Bob & Laura will do further west and north.

Me too, me too...

And congratulations to the (not-so-)newlyweds!

Cheers,
Laura

Laura Tiemann wrote:The background information about the current conditions on the other hand worried me a bit...

Imho, the redwoods are always wet enough for at least some herps, especially 'manders.