Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Here's some kings that were observed in the wild the last few years.

Two cal kings found crossing the road at once.

Coastal Mtn. King

Another Coastal Mtn. King

And yet another Coastal Mtn. King

Sierra Mtn. King

Another Sierra Mtn. King

Still another Sierra Mtn. King

that first photograph is super cool!! what are the chances......

byron.d

Thanks, it was cool. I photoed them and then moved them off the road. A pass or two later and one of them was back on the road again. I think they must have been males and there probably was a female nearby.

great post aaron. i especially like the third coastel, and a couple sierras look familar!

Thanks, it was fun catching those Sierras eh? Maybe we'll find them again this year.

Nice finds and nice photos! I've found several Cal kings, but am still in search of my first mountain king. Hopefully this year's trip to California will be successful in that quest. Below is a Cal king I found in Los Gatos in July of 2006.

Tim

Third Eye

Thanks! That's a nice Gatos king too. What part of Cali are you going to?

I stay in Los Gatos, but herp in the surrounding areas, mostly in Santa Cruz.

Tim

Hey Tim,

I used to live up in Boulder Creek and drive to work everyday down that backroad to Los Gatos.. Ever do any herping on that road or around the Ben Lomond area?
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I don't need no spell chack.

Now thats what I am talking about.

The coastal Mtn kings are my favorite but this seirra is sensational:

Did that snake come the Bass lake area or somehwere else? You always hear that the Bass Lake seirras are the best looking but I am sure there must be some nice finds in other places. Have you ever seen nice seirras mtn kings with little or no black touching somehwere besides Bass lake?

And how about the coastals.... What type of cover have you found them under??? Sandstone? I have found them under wood bark, cement blocks and carpet, plastic and crawling in the open.
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I don't need no spell chack.

I'll email you.

Wow, that first photo has me really wanting to get back out to California! Great shot!! Bluerosy showed me the ropes out there and I must admit, it's a whole different ballgame than East Coast herping. You guys just don't know how good you have it with those Arizonas (Glossys) and Rhinocheilus (Longnose)....those are the really good West coast animals, and you guys consider them junk! We were too late for zonatas (where we were) but I am sure I would have drove Rainer crazy because those boring zonatas would have kept taking up the good rocks where the "good stuff" like crotalus and hyspigelena, I wanted to find should have been. Thanks for posting!

Horridus

LOL Horridus. You know we can still jump on a plane. You LOVE plane rides. Remember?
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I don't need no spell chack.

Thanks, I love the variety too out west. One of my favorite snakes to find is goundsnakes.

That first pic absolutely rocks! Have you seen that scenario more than once? The only multiple-snake crossing within the view of my own headlights I've seen were Crotalus ruber in Murrieta, CA and Crotalus cerastes ssp in Mecca, CA.

A friend of mine saw the road "wiggling" with leafnose snakes one night in Mecca.
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Mark

>>A friend of mine saw the road "wiggling" with leafnose snakes one night in Mecca.
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Sounds like heaven to me

That is the only time I can recall seeing double snakes in the headlights at once.

One time me and my friend were night driving thru AZ and there must have been 5 Colorado River Toads in our headlights almost constantly for several miles not to mention the tons of DOR's splattered on the road. They were all adults too not like a bunch of babies just morphed.

Some other cool events:

Once on River Rd., TX we found an atrox 20 feet off the road by hearing it rattle as we drove by.

Again on River Rd. we stopped to pee and I found a Trans-Pecos Ratsnake on the shoulder right were I was gonna go.

Classic moments.

awwww, yes the old stop to take a pee trick. many years ago i had seen nothing all nite in the xmas mts of west texas, stopped on the north end, took a leak, got back in car, started back up hill, and bamm, a beautiful alterna coiled near yellow line!!

trick - Take someone with you who hates snakes. You'll see snakes.
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Mark

For example if I want to see kings....go when you need a photo of a hognose or vice versa LOL never seems to fail

Love that photo of the 2 Cal Kings crossing the road @ the same time. How sweet would it be to see that. Found my first double (well, sort of) while road cruisisng a couple fo weeks ago. We stopped for a baby Mojave Green, moved it off the road, andgot ready to photograph it and barely noticed a tiny baby Glossy snake in the roadside shrubs.

reako45

That's pretty cool too.

Nice, all these field pics are making me itch to get out.