Last week I just had the best field day - I was out working, doing bird surveys in coastal sage scrub (it's where the money is here), so I wasn't even trying to see herps. But instead I saw 3 juvenile rattlers, two viridis and one ruber = all tiny, just 2 rattles each. Then I spotted a horned lizard baby (coronatum) - so cute - and while I was squatting to get a better look, a very big gopher snake crawled right bewtween my legs. Of course, along the way I saw tons of fence lizards, oh, and an orange-throated whiptail!
I saw another coronatum, then a coachwhip (flagellum) took off in front of me. As I was finishing, I saw the TINIEST coronatum - HAD to have just hatched, and it was really RED - I've never seen an all red one. So as I followed it into the scrub and a little ditch, and reached out to try and get a better look, I heard a small HSSST - not a rattle, just a little "ahem", and I looked up. amd 3 feet in fron of me, parallel to my head, was a very big red diamond - a good 6 feet long, and FAT - girth like a zoo animal! I admit, I was so focused on the lizard, when I heard that I didn't jump, I just levitated out of that ditch. It was almost as good a day as when I lived in Venezuela!
Cheers,
Renee
