A recent trip to AZ for a day or so on business led to a few forays in the “border lands”, for those of you who don’t make it here too often lets just say it’s a wee bit different down in the Southwest, or should I say the “wild west”? The BP’s and Tribal Police were keeping us safe from ourselves and troubled not with a sleepy but HIGHLY Caffeinated, biologist who wended his way through the dark night to see what life Kauffeld and others followed after before me…
9.19.05; 1910 hrs, P/C thunderstorms rolling across southern horizon, the air smells sweet with rain. Lightning flashes in the distance showing the distant Mtns and peaks.
Leave Gila Bend, heading into the night, 1922 yields a fresh DOR Mojave, 1930 AOR cerastes, 1945 DOR Mojave, 1955 DOR cerastes, 2000 DOR Mojave, 2020 DOR Mojave, BY 0100 (and over 100 miles later) I saw an additional 5DOR Atrox, 3DOR Gophers, 1DOR Glossy, 1DOR Banded Sandsnake, 1AOR Gopher, 1AOR Getulas, 1DOR Cerastes, 1AOR Atrox, and a DOR Longnose. Not many live snakes but quite a few out considering the moon was full, though hidden by clouds until quite late.
Then to bed in the Tucson Mtns.
A lucky little fellow, saved from certain doom
http://gallery.pethobbyist.com/data/12450getulas-med.JPG
This one was hit intentionally by some bozo in front of me
http://gallery.pethobbyist.com/data/12450DORMOJAVE-med.JPG
This one really looked like a corale
http://gallery.pethobbyist.com/data/12450Bandedsand-med.JPG
One chunky little Sonoran winder
http://gallery.pethobbyist.com/data/12450Sonoranwinder-med.JPG
A lucky gophersnake
http://gallery.pethobbyist.com/data/12450gofer-med.JPG
The last snake I saw that was crawling on the CG road near my sleeping cot
http://gallery.pethobbyist.com/data/12450atrox-med.JPG
9-20-05
Sleep, look at some land for sale outside Tucson, drive Canyon X sleep some more.
Drive southern canyons at night (Temps cooler but still warm, moon much brighter due to lack of cloud cover) and we have DOR; 3WDB, 1Glossy, 1Splendida (with an ingested longnose snake).
AOR we have; 4centipedes, tarantula (tmtc),Grey Fox, 1WDB.
http://gallery.pethobbyist.com/data/124502_4_1-med.JPG
Two for one!
9-21-05
Early morning hike is rewarded with an adult Sonoran tortoise and a nice adult Blacktail.
http://gallery.pethobbyist.com/data/12450Mollo-med.JPG
Tortoises are very cool
http://gallery.pethobbyist.com/data/12450tortoise-med.JPG
For a 72 hr rocket run during a fullish moon, it wasn’t too bad with something like 26 snakes comprised of 9 species or so plus the tort. Of course we all want to hear about reptiles so I will leave the assorted floral, insect, bird, mammalian and amphibian count out...
Perfect place for the Santeria offerings!
http://gallery.pethobbyist.com/data/12450BaboSunset-med.JPG
