Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was out collecting ants today and stumbled onto the first solare hatchling of the season. This appearance is much earlier than last year, but it's expected to be 93 here today. He was sitting on a rugosus nest that had no visible activity. I dropped him a dozen ants that I had collected and walked off about 15 feet to see if he would eat. Sure enough he started lapping them up.
I saw him two more times as I was crisscrossing this little valley looking for ants. The last time I dropped some water from my bottle on his head like rain and he started drinking.
It was pretty cool to see him out already. Made my day.
Next time I take the camera.
-----
www.phrynosoma.org

That sounds like a good day in the field Mark!

I was trying to upload a video on the the Kingsnake page to play here but couldn't. Just a video of my DHL getting a cricket out of the water - nothing special.

So this is what I ran into last weekend on the Sonoma coast in the redwoods - a Giant Pacific salamander. Also saw a few CA. Slenders as well.

And a bonus of my argentine boa!

I like that Salamander. Very nice find! I've never seen one like it. I grew up on the central coast near San Luis (SLO town) and we had the red ones with rough skin.

I went back the next day to try and find that solare, but after crisscrossing the area again about 20 times without luck I gave up and started looking for ants. No sooner did I locate the first ant nest and reach down to start collecting that same solare moved as I reached. LOL. You just never know....
Anyways, I took about 20 minutes of video, of which this is just a short snippet. It's in situ, but she knows I'm there (20 feet away) and is very pensive.
Video Link Dial up fagedaboudit. 15meg
-----
www.phrynosoma.org