Posted by:
varanid
at Wed Jan 6 17:22:23 2010 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by varanid ]
I'm bored and it's freezing, so I thought I'd start a thread about what ya'll like to find in the field. Favorite species, memorable occasions...take your pick. I'm light on photos myself (all my favorites were unexpected)...but photos are welcome!
Probably 2 of my most memorable times were right after moving to Texas...the first summer I lived here my fiance' went to England for a college class (history of playwriting in england or something). So I spent most of my free days down in Palo Duro State Park. I don't know if ya'll are familiar with it, but it's very pretty, and has a great amount of herpetofauna; over the years I've found coachwhips, bullsnakes, long nosed snakes, water snakes, ring necked snakes, hognoses (both eastern and western), C. atrox, C. viridis, tons of Holbrooki and Sceloporus, box turtles, horned lizards...take your pick. It's the single most productive area I've seen for herping.
This was one of my first times in the Canyon. I'd driven down around 6-7 that evening, and was cruising looking for a trail to try out when the car ahead of me, right before a water crossing slammed on it's breaks. I noticed so kids playing in the water freaking out so I got out to take a look. Lo and behold the biggest diamondback I'd seen to that date was stretched out, taking up a good chunk of our lane. He was magnificent, clean pattern, great banding on the tail...a picture perfect specimen. He was large by local standards--5' or maybe 5.5'. He unconcernedly crawled across the other lane and into the grass. I thanked the other driver for not running him over and went on. Guess he'd come to bask and drink.
The other was my first collared lizard, also in Palo Duro Park, off the Running Trail. He was basking on a cairn of stones near the trail, displaying. First one I'd ever seen and MAN what a beauty. It was hotter than hell--before I finished the trail I'd drained my camel-back and my canteen both, it had to have been 100 degrees. And there he was just bobbing away, pretty as could be. I didn't see any nearby females or rivals to explain the signaling but it didn't stop me from enjoying the show.
There's been some other moments--watching a coachwhip raid a bird nest was just astonishing, and finding a big, angry bullsnake on a picinic bench at one of their rest areas stand out, and there's been some in other places...but those two just stand out as two of my more memorable encounters in Palo Duro. Partly because they were the first time I'd seen those species in the field, coming from way up north.
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 favorite field finds? - varanid, Wed Jan 6 17:22:23 2010
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