Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi Reptoman,
I just got back from a trip to Portal AZ with Jeff and we did see one big female Cornutum. We must have hiked 20 miles or more and didn't see hide nor hair of any others though. It was chilly at night there and didn't get much above 80 during the day. I guess we got lucky seeing the one.
We also saw quite a few Modestum too. They were much more active. We saw 3 adults and about 4 juveniles.

Out near Tucson up on the bajadas we we lucky enough to see half a dozen Solare, all of which were yearlings.

Other reptiles we saw were:
Rattlesnake - A beautiful pinkish specimen which someone had killed by the side of the road.
Leopard Lizard - dead on a dirt road, which was a real mystery as it wasn't squished.
Collard Lizard - A pretty nice one with bluish green all over his back.
Some kind of racer snakes.
One large gopher snake who contorted his head and rattled his (rattleless) tail to imitate a viper when I disturbed him, and several mule dear.

All in all it was a great trip and the cornutum really topped it off!
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2 Kings 6:15-17

Cable-I was going to put in a post today that yesterday I hiked for several hours in three differnet locations. I've even got beyond just trying to find one, but just find some scat as evidence that they have come out. Last Saturday we had a horrible storm come through with hail and wind and the whole bannana, so the bottom line in San Antonio is I still have not seen one yet. We have been having inordinately cool weather for this time of year. Even the recer runners that are already out you might see one every once in awhile but it has just been not condusive to Hl's here. As I said I'm confident that I'm sitting on some very viable area's, as it's not unusual for me ot see 3 horned lizards in the morning, and when I drive in on the dirt road I'm carefuyl as it's not unusual to see one sunning as late 4 or 5 in the evening as the heat does not dispate here in the evening like it does in Southern California. And at 5:00 its still very sunny and feels like 3:00. Anyway that's my report, obviously I will let you all know when I observe my first. We have seen a few huge rattlers here and many other snake species. I found a shed skin from a large harmless snake that measured over 8 1/2 feet long. I know that shed skins stretch when they shed, and the only two snakes that I could think of that had that kind of length was a choachwip snake, and indigo snake, oh and I forgot I've been told that 8 foot bull snakes have been fouind out here on rare occasions. I would love to observe this snake what ever it was. I don't think it was a bullsnake as the shed skin did not have keeled scales. I also had the neatest experience I've had in the while. We have a lot of roads runners out here. I was walking out away from my in-laws house and there is knee high low foliage and sparse bushes, and low and behold a road runner stood up about 10 ft from me. He was pecking around after a big bug of some sort. Anyway I appraoched him and got almost 3 ft from him, and then her started to walk away still pecking and hunting and I was able to walk about 25 yards or so with him through the field ovbserving his antics, I suppose he some how sensed I was not going to harm him. These are very weary animals, and normally my experience has been that you get within eye sight of each other and they are off into the bushes. Anyway I was really jazzed and wish I had a camera or something--it was quite an experience......let you go for now. I wonder what the temps have been like where you observed the HL? Probably a lot more condusive to digestion and activeness. Thanks for the update, have a good day all............

Hey Reptoman,
The temps weren't all that warm. I don't think it got above 82 that first day and the second was maybe 85. The day we saw the Cornutum it was cloudy with intermitant sun so it really wasn't a great HL hunting day. But sure enough that's the day we find her.
I don't know how many folks have been to Portal but it is a right cool place to see. We had breakfast at the Portal Cafe and it was really great. Good homestyle cooking.

When we crossed the chiricahua mountains the other side was warmer and up around Tucson it was probably 10 degrees warmer. That would explain the increased activity of the Solare there.

Have you ever kept Solare or Cornutum? Just curious what your experience with them might be.
Cheers!
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2 Kings 6:15-17

Reptoman,
Your email address isn't working. It must be your old one. You can click the "Cables Home" link below and email me at my home email address. Thanks again!
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2 Kings 6:15-17