From Phoenix/AZ to Las Vegas/NV

For your reports/images, made outside Europe and the "Mediterranean" countries. Not to be too narrow minded and limited to our European/Mediterranean herps.

Re: From Phoenix/AZ to Las Vegas/NV

Postby Rémon ter Harmsel » Mon Jul 07, 2014 9:12 pm

Amazing shots, stunning landscape photography! Many familiar places for me, brings back happy memories!
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Re: From Phoenix/AZ to Las Vegas/NV

Postby Francesco Tri » Mon Jul 07, 2014 10:32 pm

Congratulations, beautiful wife!

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

We want the rattlesnakes! :D :D
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Re: From Phoenix/AZ to Las Vegas/NV

Postby Paul Lambourne » Tue Jul 08, 2014 8:30 pm

Jurgen

Huge congratulations on your re marriage :D to coin an English phrase "you a seriously punching above your weight" :D
Great pictures, now stop teasing.. where are the rattle snakes..
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Re: From Phoenix/AZ to Las Vegas/NV

Postby Jürgen Gebhart » Wed Jul 09, 2014 5:24 am

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.

IMG_1620.jpg


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,

006_pa.jpg


019_p.jpg


025s_p.jpg


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


Gila Spotted Whiptail (Aspidoscelis flagellicauda)
aspidoscelis_flagellicauda.jpg


Pai Striped Whiptail (Aspidoscelis pai)
aspidoscelis_pai.jpg


Tiger Whiptail (Aspidoscelis Tigris) Ugly!
aspidoscelis_tigris_03_.jpg


Tiger Whiptail (Aspidoscelis Tigris) nicer!
aspidoscelis_tigris_01_.jpg


Tiger Whiptail (Aspidoscelis Tigris) the nicest!
aspidoscelis_tigris_02_.jpg


Plateau Striped Whiptail (Aspidoscelis velox)
aspidoscelis_velox_.jpg


Greater Earless Lizard (Cophosaurus texanus) female
cophosaurus_texanus_female_.jpg


Greater Earless Lizard (Cophosaurus texanus) male
cophosaurus_texanus_male_1_.jpg


Greater Earless Lizard (Cophosaurus texanus) male
cophosaurus_texanus_male_2_.jpg


Greater Earless Lizard (Cophosaurus texanus) male
cophosaurus_texanus_male_3_.jpg



Eastern Collared Lizard (Crotaphytus collaris)
crotaphytus_collaris_01_.jpg


Eastern Collared Lizard (Crotaphytus collaris)
crotaphytus_collaris_02_.jpg


Eastern Collared Lizard (Crotaphytus collaris)
crotaphytus_collaris_03_.jpg


Common Lesser Earless Lizard (Holbrookia maculata) female
holbrookia_maculata_female_1_.jpg


Common Lesser Earless Lizard (Holbrookia maculata) female
holbrookia_maculata_female_2_.jpg


Common Lesser Earless Lizard (Holbrookia maculata) male
holbrookia_maculata_male_1_.jpg


Common Lesser Earless Lizard (Holbrookia maculata) male
holbrookia_maculata_male_2_.jpg


Clark's Spiny Lizard (Sceloporus clarkii)
sceloporus_clarkii_.jpg


Common Sagebrush Lizard (Sceloporus graciousus)
sceloporus_graciosus_.jpg


Desert Spiny Lizard (Sceloporus magister)
sceloporus_magister_1_.jpg


Desert Spiny Lizard (Sceloporus magister)
sceloporus_magister_2_.jpg


Desert Spiny Lizard (Sceloporus magister)
sceloporus_magister_3_.jpg


Plateau Fence Lizard (Sceloporus tristichus)
sceloporus_tristichus_.jpg


Long-tailed Brush Lizard (Urosaurus graciosus)
urosaurus_graciosus.jpg


Ornate Tree Lizard (Urosaurus ornatus)
urosaurus_ornatus_.jpg


Common Side-blotched Lizard (Uta stansburiana)
uta_stansburiana_.jpg


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!!! :(
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Re: From Phoenix/AZ to Las Vegas/NV

Postby Guillaume Gomard » Wed Jul 09, 2014 9:03 am

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 :D
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Re: From Phoenix/AZ to Las Vegas/NV

Postby Peter Oefinger » Wed Jul 09, 2014 9:21 am

Beautiful dress, Jürgen. I hope to meet you in the field in this outfit, sometimes.
Btw.: Fantastic lizards there...
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Re: From Phoenix/AZ to Las Vegas/NV

Postby Kristian Munkholm » Wed Jul 09, 2014 9:39 am

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 :roll:
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Re: From Phoenix/AZ to Las Vegas/NV

Postby Jeroen Speybroeck » Wed Jul 09, 2014 11:20 am

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 :P . 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.
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Re: From Phoenix/AZ to Las Vegas/NV

Postby Laura Bok » Wed Jul 09, 2014 3:16 pm

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
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Re: From Phoenix/AZ to Las Vegas/NV

Postby Jeroen Speybroeck » Wed Jul 09, 2014 4:15 pm

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. :D
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