Well I live in the heart of California's mojave desert-- Victorville, so Herping at home is what I usually do. I have good days and nights, but most of hte time don't like ot post in forums simply because I dont see the use. However this las trip is a mentionable one. However the other night I decided to travel over to yermo since I figured that most the flooding might stir up some of the late in the year arrivals as the floods here usually do. Well, I was right on and found quite a great selection of animals. (Side note: I can not go on enough about how many red coachwhips I have seen this year. To date I have seen 16 in '03.) Anyways First thing I spotted was a beautiful male banded gecko. This specimen was around 3 inches long and had an almost blurred lavendar pattern. I kept him and will have picture up soon. Funny how many geckos I saw, five in total, which is a lot for around here. I also spotted two glossy snakes both pretty small and pretty cranky for bieng glossy snakes. I traveled down Fort Irwin road some, and ended up by Coyote Dry Lake, near Rainbow canyon (all good spots to herp). Spotted on good sized roasy who I will also have a picture of soon. One of hte odd notes of hte night was finding both a western, black and white long nose, and then the common american tri-color longnose. It was weird seeing both subspecies so close in proximity to eachother. They were both a medium size of about 2.5 feet, Hopefully that film develops, since the camera was dropped soon after. Now as some of you may know I am trying to study night snakes. I love that species and believe it or not there isn't much exhaustive research on them yet. So I hope to break some ground, any help would be greatly appreciated. (pics, specimens!!!, info). Anyways found one night snake, but its a very small hatchling so hopefully all goes well with it. Also found 3 night lizards under fallen joshua trees. Spotted 2 desert tortises, 1 mojave green rattler, and 6 kangeroo rats. Crazy night with lots of fun. Just as I thought it was a weak herp year here I found a lot in a little time.
Thanks for your time--- Snakemaster Myke
P.S. for leopard lizard, chuckwalla or Desert Iguana lovers, try the Silver Lakes area by helendale. (I have noted 6 desert iguanas, 12 leopard lizards, and 4 chuckwallas this year.)
