Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Don't laugh at me, but...

I was cruising through some of my old photos and found this one of an A.c.pictigaster on a blacktop road. Other photos from the same night were of atrox, Tantilla & Hypsiglena. The photos were taken 6/8/02. I was on vacation with the family in Alpine (lived in Dallas back then). Based on other photos (and questionable memory), I snuck out that night and drove the loop through the Davis' Mtns.

The mystery is that I don't remember EVER finding an AOR pictigaster, just DOR. Also, there is only one photo of this specimen. I can't imagine only taking one photo of what I would have considered a major find. I can only assume that I only had seconds to snap a photo and clear the road, then I must have hit my head and sufferred amnesia.

Makes me wonder what else I've found while half asleep in west Texas!

Also, here's a link to some other photos of west Texas critters. I'll be updating it with many more photos as soon as I can download them.

www.fototime.com/ftweb/bin/ft.dll/pictures?userid={FE5506FF-15D6-4B75-A02B-42BFB783331E}&AlbumId={4B3E9456-16FD-40A7-AC68-40C812ADFE0B}&GroupId={93BA0357-BE38-44ED-A3EB-9A24AF340943}

That is funny, but I have an "experience" with a roundtail horned lizard that defies my memory. I have a clear mental image of seeing one "making like a rock" on the road north of Del Rio, yet I can't recall any other circumstance to go with the memory, and no photo. I hate it when that happens!
Just a note, the first two lizards that you have labeled "earless lizard" in your album are actually Sceloporus merriami, the Canyon Lizard.

Shane
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Lifelist

Thanks for the correction. I'll update them immediately.

...I really like your life list idea. Nice..
Did I notice that Heterodon simus and Nerodia clarkii compressicauda were missing????
C'mon down! ha!

:Mark

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Surrender Dorothy!

www.crimsonking.funtigo.com

I remember some guy giving a quasi-guided tour of Tampa Bay to show some "foreigners" a compressicauda or two.......the same guy also says that there are snook in TB, but he never posts any pics.......I kinda wonder about the veracity of that guy's claims Maybe the next time I'm down that way he can redeem himself. lol
Ahhh, simus, eagerly anticipated.....they can't hide forever!

Shane
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Lifelist

I think it was the "commando" brigade that came down that day, Shane....ya just have to slow down and look for 'em I guess
I didn't know it would've been a lifer for ya though.. sorry.
As for snook pics, I really never think of taking any pics for some reason. I know I have a few around however...
They were blastin' the chubs over the weekend with the warm-up.
Getting chilly this week but my son said he saw a few last night.
:Mark
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Surrender Dorothy!

www.crimsonking.funtigo.com

Just a note, the first two lizards that you have labeled "earless lizard" in your album are actually Sceloporus merriami, the Canyon Lizard.

I'm pretty sure your Cactus Wren is a Rock Wren and your Bewick's Wren is actually a Cactus Wren.
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Chris Harrison
San Antonio, Texas

Thanks for the help. I just made the corrections.

Care to offer any corrections on my desert plant photos? I'm sure I'm off on several of those. Even my reference books seem to disagree on some of the cacti.

Desert Plants

And, just to keep it on topic...

And, just because I wish it was Spring...

Haha I did a trip or two on autopilot this year as well! Great pics of a variety of desert critters, loved the sun spider and longnose!
Todd Hughes

That was my first sun spider. I was camping on Terlingua Ranch when I heard that cicada going insane. Following the ruckus, I spotted that monstrous critter with the cicada in its jaws. I sat and watched over the next several minutes as the sun spider ate that ENTIRE cicada, except the wings. Over the next few nights I saw about a dozen more sun spiders attacking insects attracted to the light of my lantern and campfire. I was relieved to be sleeping in a hammock!

Daryl Eby

That is what I would use in a scifi monster pic! They are without a doubt the creepiest crawlers I have ever encountered!
Todd Hughes

A wild camel in Texas?
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Randy Hallman
Firehouse Herps

Texas really is "Like a whole other country". While there are currently no wild camels remaining in Texas, these massive beast do enjoy a colorful (if brief) history in the Lone Star State. They were imported by the army in the 19th century as beasts of burden and to replace the horses that were unable to find sufficient browse and water in the southwest deserts. However, the calvary soldiers never overcame their bias and the camels were sold off, released, or escaped to the wild. There have been reported sightings of feral camels across the American Southwest in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. I have a friend down here that swears his grandfather sighted a small herd of them in the 1930s in what is now Big Bend Ranch State Park.

The camel in the photograph lives on a ranch off US 67 near Shafter Texas. He was not ferral, but kept by the ranch as an animal of historic interest.