Last week, my wife Jane and I headed out to Alternaland for a bonsai trip. We hunted the River Road/Xmas on Saturday night, Sanderson Sunday and Monday night, and the Huecos on Tuesday night. We had a blast but the trip was too short. Hopefully we can make it back out next month..
After having the best venison steak we've ever eaten with Troy and Marla, we headed down to the river with high expectations. Rainfall totals during the previous week were rumored to be between 3-4" both on the river and in the Xmas mts. Although conditions seemed perfect, all we saw were 3 night snakes and a western diamondback. It was fun to see Steve Boyd and his grand daughter out there after not having seen him in a few years. We hunted the xmas until 4:30, but the xmas alterna still eludes me...
Sunday we decided to head over to Sanderson and meet up with my good buddy Eric. Last year was Jane's first year looking for alterna, and on her first night, we hunted Sanderson. On the second cut she ever spotlighted, she found a small female blairs, and 15 minutes later, she found a male dark blairs to go with it (they were 0.3 miles apart). I was really hoping that her luck in Sanderson would continue, but I couldn't have dreamed what actually happened.
We left Sanderson at dusk, and I hunted the first cut east as we left town. At 9:14, my wife spotted her first cut, the one on the south side of the road, approx 2.5 miles east of Sanderson. Half way through the cut, BAM! There's an alterna! It is a female medium phase that looks like a blairs from the top, and an alterna phase from the side. Here's a pic of her:
