I just got home yesterday evening from a trip I'd been anticipating for months--exploring the Big Bend region of Texas. I've been a few times in the past, but this was important because my family was accompanying me, and it was the Big Test as far as seeing how my daughter will handle the camping experience (she did great).
Thursday after work we headed to Monahans Sandhills State Park, west of the Midland-Odessa area. It was WINDY which made for lots of blowing sand and a noisy tent. We got there around sunset and didn't do a whole lot of exploring that evening. On the way out of the park on Friday morning, we came across this small (for TX, anyway) atrox basking in the sun's warm, glowing, warming glow:
My 4 1/2 yr old daughter was working the camera, not too shabby! (She was a lot further away from the snake than I was; I zoomed all the way in for her)
He didn't move at all until I moved in closer for a head shot, upon which it nonchalantly turned in my direction:
I touched its tail just to see if I could get it to move and it reacted by striking the "classic" diamondback pose:
I've never had one do this for me so I was happy to finally get one of "those" shots. However, my kid went ballistic at hearing the rattle and seeing the response and ran back to the car!
We stopped at Balmorhea SP on the way south to try a little snorkeling, but it was cloudy, still windy and COLD! Therefore, we continued on to Terlingua and stayed in the Chisos Mining Co motel (Easter Egg). That was part of the deal--the wife agreed to camp if we stayed in a motel every other night!
The plus side for me was that the sense of security offered by such lodging arrangements allowed me to head out for some road cruising. Friday night, I headed west to check out River Road. I arrived in Lajitas at sunset and I was very impressed with the still-visible scenery--I definitely want to spend more time checking out Big Bend Ranch SP someday.
About 8:35 pm, still twilight, I found this nice suboc on the side of the road--in situ shot:
My foot in the pic for a size reference; the snake is in the typical rat snake "stick" pose:
About the best pic my PowerShot A80 can muster without the flash washing out the colors; I need to get some sort of diffuser:
Posed shot after moving it off the road. I've only found one other suboc before, and I don't remember the faint markings on the side--typical of RR subocs?
Saturday we entered BBNP from the west side and first visited Santa Elena Canyon. At 10 am it was still quite cool. After stopping by Castolon we put the 4Runner into 4 wheel drive (for the first time in a long time!) and started down "River Road West" (not to be confused with the River Road, which is actually further west!), an unpaved route through the southern edge of the park. It never really warmed up until well into the afternoon, at which time we saw quite a few whiptails (maybe a couple of different species, but I couldn't get close enough to ID them).
We camped for the night at Fresno, one of the primitive roadside campsites (this one was southeast of Elephant Tusk). My daughter had an unfortunate run-in with a cactus and we spent quite some time picking small spines out of her leg. She's a real trooper though, I wouldn't carry her back to camp (half hour hike) because she wouldn't stop crying, and when we got back we discovered she had even more spines stuck in her heel!
On Sunday we broke camp and visited Hot Springs near Rio Grande Village. Again, whiptails were everywhere, some in the process of courting mates. I'm guessing this is a marbled whiptail, Aspidoceles marmoratus; if so, a lifer for me:
I enjoy the way these big ones move--standard teiid "jerky" movement but also the "trotting" with the back slightly arched, reminiscent of the larger Amieva of parts further south.
Lots of Ewwta were in evidence on the loose-soil embankments, again going through the courtship ritual. Here's a male Uta, with fairly "chunky" turquoise spots on his back (in comparison to some I've seen in the western US):
Comparatively drab female. I'm sure glad female humans are the fairer sex.
From Hot Springs we proceeded to Boquillas Canyon. At first I thought I was seeing merely more Uta but was happily surprise to discover most of the lizards I saw were Big Bend Canyon Lizards, Sceloporus merriami annulatus (another lifer):
Check out the LONG digits on the feet! Here's another one, surveying his realm (Rio Grande in the background):
Here's a smallish southwestern earless lizard, Cophosaurus texanus scitulus:
Another shot, as it's in the process of "tail waving" in an effort to distract me, the perceived predator, with the bright bands under the tail (not visible in this shot) before darting a short distance to blend into the substrate:
We stayed in the Chisos Mountain Lodge, in The Basin, Sunday night. Again, this afforded me the opportunity to do some road cruising. I saw absolutely nothing within the boundary of BBNP on my way out Persimmon Gap, but once I turned onto Black Gap Road, the desert was alive with TMTC desert cottontails, jackrabbits, and some strange bird I'm sure you've all seen before--vivid orange eyeshine; they sit in the road until you're right on top of them and then burst into the air in a flurry of extremely rapid wingbeats. I tried to take a picture of one but it didn't turn out too well--what are they?
It's always an adventure to drive an unfamiliar road at night, not having any idea of what the surrounding terrain looks like, not to mention not knowing what lies beyond every hill/bend--I think I caught some air a couple of times on the dips and bumps!
I saw one measly snake, about 12" long, that moved off the road by the time I got back to it. I renewed my proficiency in the 3-point turn, by which I mean:
1. Turn sharply to the left until you can't stand it (off the road shoulder and potentially at the edge of a dropoff).
2. Reverse the steering wheel and back up until it sounds expensive!
3. Repeat as necessary until you're headed the opposite direction.
I was getting discouraged until passing one road cut and saw what appeared to be a Cophosaurus starting across the road. This wouldn't be totally unheard of for me, as I'm sure y'all have also found normally-diurnal lizards on the road at night. However, once I got back to the spot, I could hardly believe it. My long-term goal of finding a Big Bend Gecko, Coleonyx reticulatus, had finally been realized!
I had been thrown off by the odd body posture as it traversed the road--the C. variegatus I've seen out west typically scamper, with tail curled over the back like a scorpion. But no matter, I was beside myself with excitement.
This thing was absolutely HUGE in comparison to brevis (which I STILL haven't found!) and variegatus. It could've swallowed a brevis whole.
Here's a closer shot:
Notice the everted right hemipene. At first I wasn't paying attention to the gender so I guess he was trying to make a statement by challenging me to a "whose is bigger" contest. However, Chuck Norris showed up and put us both to shame.
I hadn't been too optimistic after the region not receiving a recent rain shower, so this was a great surprise. It was a breezy, clear night; I'll have to research the nearest weather data to get an air temp etc. but the road temp was 78 degrees.
This was the perfect end to my Big Bend experience--the only way it could've been better is if the gecko had $30 in his mouth to cover the cost of gas it took to find him!
Yesterday we made the long trip home, stopping again at Balmorhea where this time the weather was much more cooperative, plus being an off-season Monday we had the place practically to ourselves. Here's a picture of a Texas softshell turtle, Apalone spiniferus emoryi competing with the numerous minnows for bread thrown in by another visiting couple:
I've had a lot of great experiences on a variety of trips around the world, but this one was one of the best. I also have a couple hundred shots of various wildflowers I'll probably need help identifying, but I'll find an appropriate forum for those. However, I can't help but include one shot I particularly like; century plant (dead; they're not blooming yet) at sunset looking towards "The Window" in the Chisos Basin. Hope you enjoyed the report and thanks for looking!
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Chris McMartin
www.mcmartinville.com
I'm Not a Herpetologist, but I Play One on the Internet
