Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Unfortunately most of what I saw was DOR. I saw a young WDB and a banded gecko within a foot of eachother. I'm pretyt sure the gecko is thanking the gecko gods I came along and scared it away. I chased the little rattler off of the road, unfortunately, I saw one DOR in the same vicinity on my way back, so I assume it got crunched. Saw a big sidewinder, I'll post pics tomorrow, and a tiny little baby SW, probably about 6", and pretty cute. I always find it interesting how most viperidae young will choose flight immediatly, while most boidae will choose fight, albeit briefly.

Saw a rather large long nose, can someone explain the pattern difference? One smaller one yesterday looked like a cali king till I saw the red on it's sides, and another one looked to have more red to it, and on it's back, as opposed to the smaller one only having red on it's sides. Finally, the one i saw today had equal parts of red/yellow/black speckling. Does the red increase as it ages?

Finally, saw 2 DOR WDB's, and a DOR garter, I wasn't aware there were any garters in the desert, but i have little doubt that's what it was.

I'll post pics later, it's too late tonight.

kijio

Around the outskirts of Phoenix. I had invited you along with me, you never replied.

Well I thought tonight would be a good night, but it turns out it wasn't at all. I did see a HUGE mojave, at least i think it was a mojave, looks like the one I have at home, Can someone explain the WDB looking phase to me? Are there seperate phases? or do I not have a mojave at home. I'll post a pic of the one tonight, tho I couldn't get him to pose, he was either trying to eat me or trying to escape, would not sit still. ALso, I found 2 tarantulas, and a DOR, more like dying on road, WDB baby, i was passed by a car and he must have been hit by that car, since he was still squirming and gasping, but he was beyond repair.

So my 5 day totals while in and around PHX:

4 mojave's
3 WDB's
3 Sidewinders
3 Long nose snakes
6 toads, i assume various species? Not familiar with local amphibians, nor did i spend much time with them.
1 dor Garter
1 huge sonoran gopher
5 banded geckos
2 tarantulas ( can someone give me species info on these? one was tan w/ black legs, the other brown with black legs, i'm assuming same species, but not sure.)
1 collard swift
600ish little desert lizzards that were way too fast for me to even think of photographing
several hunderd K-rats
3 foxes
10 rabbits

Not a bad trip, hopefully next time I'll have the opportunity to meet up with area herpers and find some better stuff, kinsnakes, etc.

but I do have a mojave at home that is considerably different in pattern and color to the ones I took out in the desert. Any ideas why? Maybe what I have ins't a mojave, is cammo green on a khaki background

here's the snake I took pics of tongiht...

It was quite large, 4' maybe, and about the thickness of a rat weanling.

enjoy

>>but I do have a mojave at home that is considerably different in pattern and color to the ones I took out in the desert. Any ideas why? Maybe what I have ins't a mojave, is cammo green on a khaki background
>>
>>here's the snake I took pics of tongiht...
>>
>>It was quite large, 4' maybe, and about the thickness of a rat weanling.
>>
>>enjoy
>>
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Chris Harrison

Yeah I wasn't really paying much attention to what it was, as I was spending my time dodging it, it was paying particular intrest to me, and would not pose.

I realized after I saw the pic that it was a black tail.

As for my mojave, I'll get pics of it later.

Thats a black tail, beautiful snakes. Mojaves have wide white rings and thin black rings around the tail, faded coloration just before the tail, and skinnier heads than most crotalids. Do you have a pic of your mojave from home?

Do you have a pic of that garter? I agree with you that they shouldnt be there. I found a racer once that someone called a garter, and yes, it had a similar shape. There were some recent rains, correct? There are garters in Az but they will stay near water, so if there was a creek or something and recent rains that may account for you garter sighting, or it could be a racer or something else.

No, I didn't take a picture of it, as it was 1am and I had to get back to my hotel. It was no doubt a garter, there may have been a flood channel nearby, it was on the west side of phx, near the airforce base.

T. marcianus is very common near agricultural areas and the area N.W of Phx. has a lot of T. cyrtopsis. One would be surprised at how many hidden creeks there are in the desert foothills until you get out and do some serious hiking.