Reptile & Amphibian Forums

It's always a little slow this time of yr, and I finally figured out how to post pics, so what the heck.
Cheers, Bill

Cool snake. Is it wild caught or cb? I collected one on the west end of the river rd. that looks a lot like yours, speckle neck and faded orange.

It is a cb animal, and the spitting image of its mother.
I've yet to collect in Tx, hoping to this season!
Cheers, Bill

That is a beauty alright.

When you say you got one on "the west end of the river road" that looks like the one Bill posted, do you mean down by the rockhouse or the real west end past Presidio up by the hot springs? just curious as it is a long road.

The nice photos make me jumpy to get out there!!

When I said "west end of river rd." I mean past the Colorado Canyon put in and east of the windmill.

Thanks, That's what I figured. I'd love to see you speckle necked if you can post a pic? The river road beasts are great. Cheers.

My son will have to scan the photo of the speckle neck tomorrow and e-mail it to me so I can post it tomorrow night. Meanwhile, though it's not a river road, it is a Big Bend alterna. I missed this girl by about 7 minutes. I went over the hill, met a car and came back to find this.

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Ouch!! That always sucks. Any D.O.R. is a drag to see, but there are some that are harder to take. I'll never forget seeing my first D.O.R. Crotalus willardi. It seemed very odd to see one hit. That was over thirty years ago!! Of course now I know you can find them around lots of roads. Alterna dead always hurt. That looks like a Christmas Mts one, but could be from anywhere down there I guess. I look forward to seeing the speckle neck.

Thanks very much for posting the photos!!

It does look a lot like a male Christmas Mt animal that I have.
I've yet to see a DOR willardi, and that's fine by me. I did see a DOR Gila last summer in Yavapai Co., that was bad enough.
Cheers, Bill

D.O.R. Gilas definitely are another drag to see. It is ironic that what ever you spend eons of your life hunting for always seems to be worse when you find one dead.

Here in the Tucson area it is regularly snake carnage on our roads. It is not uncommon to see a half a dozen D.O.R's in a 5 mile round trip to the store. Unfortunately, we see lots of dead gilas too... These days, its patchnosed and gophers getting whacked on the road. All winter long the mighty tire makes its mark.

I hate to see any of them dead on the road.

As long as we're telling DOR nightmare stories, here's my worst night ever. A July night on Hwy 93 nw of Wickenburg amongst the Joshua Trees....32 DOR scutulatus in a 30 minute period! As soon as we'd get rolling again, we'd see another, it was horrible. These weren't neonates either, all were in the 2-2 1/2' range, some a little larger. It was really to bad.
Bill

OUCH! That is horrible indeed! Sorry to have brought back the bad memories!

Frank Retes and I went out one night a few years back on hwy 286 and found something like 29 snakes in about three hours and only two were alive. The only other vehicles on the road were Border Patrol. We weren't hitting them either (snicker snicker). Timing is everything huh?

Okay, here is the speckle neck. It is a male that I collected about 3 miles west of the Colorado Caynon put in, hwy 177 {river rd.} in 1984. Sorry the pics aren't the best.
You are right about the D.O.R., it is from Luna Vista and was a young female I found in june of 03.

The photo is good enough for me! Particularly mid winter!!Thanks very much.

That speckle neck seems to be a prevalent look for that area down by the windmill? What a beauty that one is. I got one (years ago) that looks similar to yours down by what Rick Green and I used to call mud flats (east of the CC put in but west of big hill). Thanks for the pics! Cheers.

Very nice Bill. I like how the orange fades out. I thought I'd join you in the forum and keep you company. Here's my female Hwy 277. She's my most aggressive feeding alterna, unlike the male I bought with her which is only eating anoles at the moment. What a PAIN! Hopefully I can switch him to pinks soon.

Nice snake, very clean pattern. 277 is a great locality, lots of variance.
Cheers, Bill