Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Went out to a spot in Central Oregon I have been going to for years and had my most productive weekend on record. Fellow forum member Dman and a buddy of mine spent 6 hours Saturday and roughly 4 hours Sunday walking along the river and finding snakes the whole way.

The Crotalus were out in force and we found 9 during the two days we were there, Crotes and Coluber are the usual finds in that area but 9 is a very good number. They tend to be highly variable in this area and and we found a bunch of the different phases.

First a more standard color

Crotalus viridis oreganus

A more yellow individual

Light brown

Very dark,by far the darkest I have seen.

A very small last years baby, I don't know how I saw this one it had a button and one tail stripe showing through 5 feet of sagebrush and grass

A couple randoms

This place is always thick with racers but I have never seen close to the amount we saw this weekend easily a hundred.
At one point we were standing on the trail as at least 5 males were batting and chasing a female, they continued chasing each other around for the better part of 20 minutes. We actually left them and came back an hour later and they were still going at it pretty crazy the amount of energy they were using fighting each other and chasing those females.

Coluber constrictor morman

Up in a tree

Me and this guys sat and watched each other for several minutes

I wish I was able to get video of the racers going at it but you couldn't even tell what was going on if you weren't in the thick of it.

The trip was full of Pituophis as well and we must have found we found 7 or 8 while we out there.

Pituophis catenifer catenifer/deserticola

These are in the intergrade zone but some key out more P. c.c. than P.c.d. and vise-versa

Much better than one of us dorky dudes holding the gopher.

We saw several Southern gators over the weekend but this guy was huge, thee biggest I have ever seen.
Elgaria multicarinta

We saw tons of Sceloporus and a couple Skiltons skinks over the weekend but neither made it to photo's. The weather was perfect mid 80's with a slight breeze and not a cloud in the sky great time to be in the Oregon Desert.

A couple of non-herp photo's

We did find a ton of Scorpions but this was the only photo I got

We startled this herd of dear as I rolled over a hill crest needless to say they startled me too!

We found this racer in camp and brought it back to show the fishing group we were with, it stayed in the couple holder for a half an hour.

Thanks for looking,
Nate

Nate,
Awesome post! The 6th pic down is my favorite. The aligator lizard is cool too. Do you find rubber boas in your area?

Dan Eby

Thanks Dan,

I think in this particular spot there are no rubber boas but if you head northwest for about 25 minutes they are in that area.

Nate

Great post. Loved the Oreganus and the intergrade Pits. I forgot you guys had C.c. mormons up there. My friend's got one of those he found in NorCal and kept for a captive and it's a great snake. Now I'd like to try my hand @ them.

Thanks Reako,
I have been contemplating getting some small hyper colubrids for awhile, some that have crossed my mind are Philothamnus, Leptophis, Drymobious.... and a couple others but after finding these beautiful C.c. mormon with the high turquoise sides and gunmetal to pink tails I think I may stick local.

I'd like to hear any info your buddy has on them, I think I have a pretty good idea but bouncing ideas never hurt!

Nate

One of my large hyper colubrids

And a good looking Mormon.....