Well guys,
My friend Mike from El Paso has been doing some extensive hunting in the Huecos this year. He has put in considerable time, and came up with two awesome alterna, which he found 53 minutes apart. Conditions were perfect that night....it had rained in the afternoon and the sun came out and warmed things up before the sun went down. He actually caught the snakes on opposite ends of the exact same cut, and according to my GPS, the snakes came from 5003 ft elevation. I was surprised that the elevation was that high...
Luckily, Mike appreciates alterna but has no desire to keep them. Jane and I spent the weekend hunting the Huecos and acquired the awesome pair from him which are pictured below. Mike is a super nice guy, and I'm really hoping he'll find a few more to add to our breeding projects.
Sorry for the pic quality...I need Troy or Brad to come teach me how to use my Nikon D70, because I can't seem to get enough depth of field..lol
Conditions seemed perfect both Friday and Saturday night....except it may have still been too wet from last week's rains. All we saw Firday night (hunting til 4:00 am) was one atrox. Saturday night we saw 2 atrox, 2 blacktails and a gopher snake (that Jane spotlighted with only it's head and neck hanging out of a hole on a cut). I've been hunting the Huecos for 20+ years now, but I'm not giving up until I can personally pick one of these gems off the cut...
The first snake is a female...approx 26". The second is a male, approx 22".
