This is getting to be a drag. This makes the third DOR zonata I've found this year, as opposed to only one ALL of last year.
This one was a beauty--a real Anna Kournikova of a zonata--maybe gravid maybe not, but had 5 or 6 well developed nodules. Oddly,she was intact except for slightly mis-shapen neck area, which suggests that a bicycle did her in.
Found about 15 minutes after I rode one way down the road, which means she was probably at or very near the roadside on my first pass. Oh well. At least I know that they exist in this habitat locality, which was previously only speculative.
Anyway,
Lizards, lizards, lizards. Everywhere there are lizards. Found a shed from a southern alligator that was HUGE, even accounting for stretch. Has to be 18 inches at least. I'll catch him sooner or later.
CalKings X 3, various localities.
Gopher X 1. Mt. Hamilton.
T. atratus X 2. Someone e-mailed with request for locality info: you'll find them out in the open at Russian Ridge Open Space Preserve--Skyline Blvd. at Page Mill Rd. above Palo Alto. Look on south exposure bluffs near the USGS Monument markers on the 'lookout trail' hilltop, and near the pond. Is that specific enough? Others were seen in Big Basin, where you'll go to jail if you even pick one up to photograph it. (I was accosted by the (very attractive, btw) ranger-girl. She liked my hat.)
That's about it , folks. Things seem a lot quieter than in previous weeks, but then again I haven't been out a lot other than catching munchies for the home herps.
