How has everyone been doing out there, the season is finally here it is so great! Well, i have just heard so much negative things about what happens when people have discussed locality information so my herp partner ( shatty ) and i have agreed to not post specific info but will give enough to know where we are talking about.
April 2 2004 Shatty, lyle (friend) and I all went out for a day hunt somewhere in elfin forest. we herped a trash pile for a while and just came out w/ some lizards. we went to another spot where we climbed rocks a bit crevice hunting and still nothing. On the way back down, we saw a coastal horned lizard which pretty much made our day beacause we ended up catching nothing but lizards.
April 3 2004 I and a close friend of mine (not shatty) went out in a canyon around the la costa/ carlsbad area (if you know the area, you know where its at!). As you so cal. herpers know it was rather cloudy and overcast that day. We went out at about 4 pm and we were on a mission for rosy boas! We crossed a stream over a series of rocks and began climbing the cliff faces. Now this was my friend jimmy's first real herp mission was he was getting excited on all the little western fence lizrds and such trying to catch them. i quickly caught a large adult male. I gave it tom him so he could quickly observe it which he did and had him release back into another crevice on the cliff. immediatly after that, he was like " oh oh another lizard!" now this was an alligator lizard and he wanted to check that one out to. it went into a hole and as I was explaining to him that it wasn't really worth digging him, there would be plenty more to see, I saw a large flash of red!!!! You know what that means! I told him to get back because I kid you not, it was sitting about 4 ft away from us when we were looking into the hole of the lizrds and we must have startled her! I quickly "hooked her " and brought her onto well the most level surface on the face of a cliff! We than observed her from there. It was about a 4 ft. female and she was so gentle. she didn't rattle, hiss, strike or really even care that i had her. She was just mid body on the hook and i was holding the tail, she didn't come back on me at all (note that it was a cool overcast day)! i was really surpised but it sure gave jimmy the impression that it was much easier than it seemed! After he and I were satisfied we let her go into a large pile of rocks in the cliff side. As she was almost all the way in and She wasn't turning around, I let jimmy just kind of guide her tail in for a second so he could get a good feel! He said that was probably the most awesome surface/ texture he has ever felt in his life, I definatly agree as with probably most of you crotalus fans. We hunted a little further and were at almost dark with no flash lights so we turned back. She definatly made our day!
April 5 Shatty and I went out to a fairly new spot of ours. It is in another canyon around the del dios area. shatty has previously flipped a juvenile red diamond around the area in march and I have flipped about 9 helleri and 2 ruber (all adults 4 ft. but this was in september 01') under construction boards in the same vicinity in which we relocated all 11 of them to this particular canyon. We have to cross a large deep stream to get to this particular spot. now that may not seem that bad besides for the fact that there is a BEEHIVE on the other side of the river that you must go through so if you find it, don't wear yellow ha ha! The immediate second after crossing the river, we spotted a juvenile red diamond rattlesnake (4 rattles). This was the first snake ryan (shatty) and I had ever seen there that was in a natural setting, not manmade ( tiles, tash piles, construction sites) so we were so stoked. we took tons of pictures and I happen to have brought my dideo camera that day! Neither are digital but i may try to san them than post. It was almost 2 ft. long and had a bit of an attitude but for how hot it was, it was pretty mild tempered. We made his little den where we found him at a lot more concealed and btter than it was when we found him and she just webt strait back in there when we let her go. On the way back to the truck, we spotted a fairly dark looking san diego gopher snake basking on a dirt road, he was about 4 ft long and fairly thick! This was the first non venomous snake either of us have heard of or seen there. We knew they existed but just never found one. this turned out to be a great day for us and we will be frequenting this spot a lot in the near future! Are you coming with us Eimon?
Well, thats it for now and we are still looking for our first rosy of the year, that first one is the hardest to find! I have personally only found 5 rosy boas ever and guess what, they were all boreggos so as far as seeing one from over this way, that would be the best! thanks for reading and please share what you have been lucky enough to encounter this year. Jon
So far this season:
2 juvenile red diamonds (ruber)
1 adult red diamond (ruber)
1 adult southern pacific (helleri)
2 san diego gophers adults
1 juvenile souther pacific
And still looking! Keep in mind this is what we have actually caught, not just seen and got away. Happy herping. Rootsrok
