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I have a question on herping in general about south AZ. I have spent my first spring here and about to go on my second monsoon season. My last duty station was Jacksonville Florida. A lot of herps to be seen in that area. Coming to AZ. I had the impression that I would be putting snakes off the road left and right. This certainly has not been the case, for me anyway. I have hunted the known areas this past spring with very little success. Now with these pre monsoon rains, I again thought the roads would be crawling with snakes. Plenty of toads and other wildlife but very limited snake activity. Any thoughts?

Wow! That sucks. What part of Az are you in? I'm hoping conditions improve cuz in 2 weeks we'll be headed down to Az to see what the monsoons turn up. Hope things improve by then. Good luck.

reako45

Arizona is a great herp state but it's not Florida or California.
Some thought and experience goes into productive trips and rarely are there snakes everywhere.
Sometimes........under the right conditions.......it happens.

Make friends, join a herp club and over time, all of your experiences, fieldguides, maps and gas money will show you the ways of Arizona.
K>S>

That's funny that you put Florida and California in the same category. I live in SoCal (the vast L.A. County) and have had a pretty good Spring & Summer as far as field herping goes. As everyone knows there are "dry" days as well, where you see nothing. On those "dry" days I inevitably start w/ "the grass is always greener" syndrome, and say to myself "Man, if I were in Florida I'd be seein' stuff everywhere."
I belong to a herp club (SWHS) w/ some old herp heads who've been doin' the field herping thing since the 70's, so when I head down to Az for the monsoons we'll be rolling as a group. I don't have my heart set on anything in particular except having a good time... OK I'm lying. I really wanna see some L.g splendidas or P.c. affinis. That aint askin' for too much is it?

reako45