Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I got kind of skunked on the snakes, but this was my first trip to AZ so practically everything I saw was new and I had a lot of fun chasing toads Bellow are some of my better pics.

A couple of red-spotted toads, Bufo punctatus

Funky spadefoot, seemed to have a boss but it was in south central AZ so it would have to be a Mexican, Spea multiplicata

Ornate tree lizard, Urosaurus ornatus

Sonoran desert toad, Bufo alvarius, these guys are the coolest!

Canyon treefrog, Hyla arenicolor

Whiptail from the Chiricahuas, these guys gave me a tough time, the neonates looked like miniature adults (no color on the tail), unspotted Sonoran spotteds, Cnemidophorus sonorae???

Couch's spadefoot, Scaphiopus couchii

Plains spadefoot, Spea bombifrons

Great plains toad, Bufo cognatus, these guys would not sit still, very frustrating to photograph

Small juvie greater short-horned, Phrynosoma hernandesi

Juvie female mountain spiny, Sceloporus jarrovii

Neonate mojave, Crotalus scutulatus

Hatchling long-nosed, Rhinocheilus lecontei

I started taking pics of this mojave, then noticed the eye and wasn't sure whether or not he was alive, but once I got on his good side he sprang to life.

Hopefully I'll have better timing next year and see more snakes, the temps seemed to drop pretty quickly at night and that coupled with the full moon seemed to do us in.

-Alice

You've got some nice pictures there.

You seem to know your toads pretty well and your way around a camera. I really liked those red-spotted toads, but where did you find all that water? I don't remember any streams like that in se. AZ (I guess it might be Cave Creek...haven't been there in awhile).

That whiptail looks like it could be a desert grassland whiptail, C. uniparens. I've had trouble with whiptails in that area too. If it was a spotted I think there's a Chiricahua spotted.

If you didn't see many snakes there's probably good reasons for that. A lot of us don't see much on certain nights. In August it's often very wet and/or cool in the evenings. I've gone hours w/o seeing a snake before. That's very discouraging if you have very little time to invest.

Hope you have some more luck next time you go...

Terry

The B. punctatus were actually photographed in south central AZ at a park south of Nagales.

The whiptail was driving me nuts! Stebbins doesn't list a Chiricahua spotted, but there is a Chihuahuan spotted (C. exanguis), but even the juvies of that species are supposed to have spots. As I said, the juvies also had uncolored tails just like the adult pictured whereas C. uniparens young are supposed to have bright blue tails. Since I couldn't match up any of the species characteristics with these 100% I'm guessing that they are one of those undescribed taxa in the C. sonorae/flagellicadus complex that Stebbins makes mention of.

Thanks for the compliments on my pics! I really enjoyed your green rat snake shots, I've got a friend who has been going down to AZ for years looking and has never found one so I was really hoping to come up with one since it would have been a major upset

-Alice

>>The B. punctatus were actually photographed in south central AZ at a park south of Nagales.
>>

Do you mean Nogales? Where is that at in relation to Tucson?

>>The whiptail was driving me nuts! Stebbins doesn't list a Chiricahua spotted, but there is a Chihuahuan spotted (C. exanguis), but even the juvies of that species are supposed to have spots. As I said, the juvies also had uncolored tails just like the adult pictured whereas C. uniparens young are supposed to have bright blue tails. Since I couldn't match up any of the species characteristics with these 100% I'm guessing that they are one of those undescribed taxa in the C. sonorae/flagellicadus complex that Stebbins makes mention of.
>>

You're right. Thanks for the correction on that and thanks for the additional info.

>>Thanks for the compliments on my pics! I really enjoyed your green rat snake shots, I've got a friend who has been going down to AZ for years looking and has never found one so I was really hoping to come up with one since it would have been a major upset
>>
>>-Alice

You're welcome and thanks for your compliments. That green rat was only the 2nd I'd seen in ten yrs. I sure was surprised and just sorry I didn't have anyone to share the experience with at the time.

Cheers...Terry

Yup, I meant Nogales, I'm a terrible speller, this usually happens when I try to spell from memory It's almost directly south of Tuscon right near the border. I was hoping to take a drive down Ruby road that night, but it was a little too rough for my Taurus to handle (we had one of the big 4-wheel drive border patrol trucks pass us on it as we were making our way back out, recrossing the creeks, I think they thought we were nuts and they were probably right).

-Alice

I thought maybe you were down there somewhere just north of Nogales. Our place is in Green Valley, bt. Tucson and Nogales. You must have been on Ruby Rd as it goes from the I-19 to the lake or state park, whatever that is. A lot of people have drivin that portion and lots of us have met the border patrol down there. I just don't remember so much water in that area. I think with all the rains we were getting in the early part of August that the rivers and washes were sometimes quite full. I know the Santa Cruz had the most water I'd seen in awhile up by G.V.

It might be good that you didn't try the rougher part of Ruby Rd with that little car, mostly because there's been so much illegal activity in the area this year. Maybe next year

Terry

Those are some beautiful pictures! I wouldn't say bad luck on the snakes though; all I saw was garters, a lined (DOR) and mojave(DOR)... Great shots! Especially of the red spotted with the river behind!
-Sean

Did you make it to chuck country at all? Just wonder if any are moving. Tom

Unfortunately I wasn't able to spend any time in chuck country, I was hoping to stop by the south mtn area to try to get some red-tail shots, but I ended up spending an extra day in the Chiracahuas. Hopefully, I'll make it back out there next year.

-Alice

Nice work, looks like you had fun
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Snakes of Hudspeth County, Texas

n/p