Palo Duro Canyon

I have lived near Palo Duro Canyon for almost 4 years now. I've been going to school and I just recently finished my masters degree in biology. As such, I am applying for jobs and I'm looking to relocate in the not-too-distant future. I've been to "the canyon" many times, but I had never made the hike to see its representative icon, a formation called "the Lighthouse." Planning to move pretty soon, I thought that I should finally make it out to the canyon and see its perhaps most famous landmark. Palo Duro Canyon is the 2nd largest canyon in the U.S. (with the Grand Canyon being the largest). If you're ever near Amarillo in the Texas panhandle, its worth the short drive to see the amazing scenery.

I think the signs stated that the trail to the Lighthouse formation was about 3 miles, roundtrip. It felt like double that. It wasn't too steep or too hot...it was just long. It was, however, completely worth the effort. And I managed to see a few herps along the way too, of course.

Numerous on the trail were side-blotched lizards. These are identifiable by their "blotch" on their "sides" (the dot in their "armpit"). Easy enough, right?

Side-blotched lizard

Almost there!

Harvester ant were every active along the trail and I was constantly scanning the ground in the chance that there would be a horned lizard lapping them up. Sure enough, there was! Always cool too see, the Texas horned lizard is a myrmecophagous ("ant-eating") specialist and is the state reptile of Texas.

Texas horned lizard

And finally, after much sweating, water consumption, and sand in my shoes...the Lighthouse! As you can see in the "almost there" picture above, there is another tall ridge-shaped formation next to the Lighthouse. You can climb onto the neighboring structure, if you're brave enough, and get a great view of everything around you.

The Lighthouse

Formation adjacent to the Lighthouse

The view from atop

It was quite a workout, but a must-see before I prepare to leave the Texas panhandle. I hope it also illustrates how easy it is to observe and appreciate wildlife just by educating yourself a little to be able to notice the plants, birds, etc. around you. Several people zoomed past me along the trail as I was crouched taking pictures of the horned lizard. How can you be that oblivious to the world around you? I hope the answer is you're not.

That's No Mountain

Spring is finally here! At least, it is for Texas. I haven't posted in awhile, but that's because I haven't been anywhere in awhile. In my part of the world, reptiles and amphibians like to sleep through the season that's finally ending, so I haven't had anything to go searching for lately. My spring break vacation just ended, however, and I did manage to get out and see some sights.

This year, instead of a long road trip, I made a short day trip into New Mexico. Because its still a little too cold for herps, I was going for some birdwatching and cool scenery. First stop was Capulin Volcano National Monument. From the Texas panhandle until parts of north-eastern New Mexico, the terrain is pretty flat. Imagine driving through that for 4 hours and then having mountains appear on the horizon. Well, some of them were mountains, but most of them are more appropriately volcanoes. That's right: Lava, dinosaurs, and the whole nine yards...at least, millions of years ago. Capulin Volcano rises to over 8,000 feet from the surrounding plains, and is so high that it offers a view into Colorado. You could literally see the Rocky Mountains from up top. There were some cool birds there, and I found the ones I had come to see: Western scrub jay and Steller's jay. Did you know that there's more to "jay" birds than just the good ol' Blue?

A view from Capulin Volcano, Rocky Mountains in the distance

Another stop on the way home was Clayton Lake State Park. There was some pretty good birding there with waterfowl on the aforementioned lake, but the main reason for my stopping there was dino tracks. It seems when the dam was constructed for Clayton Lake, the resulting spillway flow removed many layers of rock and sediment, exposing dinosaur tracks. There are some good geocaches there too.

Those were BIG reptiles

So, no herp pics this time (if you don't count the tracks of the extinct ones), but I hope you enjoy the scenery shots. Just think, I saved you the hike in the thin air.

"You found a what???"

In April, I went with 2 friends to Kansas to herp on a field trip aimed at gathering more knowledge about the target area, herpetologically speaking. The trip was pretty uneventful: We only saw 4 or 5 common species, including prairie lizard, ornate box turtle, and a red-spotted toad.

At least, we thought that was uneventful. We see those species in our Texas panhandle herping all the time, so we didn't keep anything or take pictures. However, after a long day in the sun, we got back to where we started to find a different story. There was a person with tally sheets whose job it was to record what species each group had found as they returned. I ran through what I thought was our paltry list and the guy wrote it down, until I came to red-spotted toad. That species wasn't on the tally sheet. Upon conferring with another organizer, the recorder informed us that our toad find was a county record...at least, it would have been, if we had brought the animal back or taken a good picture.

We lead the second organizer back out to where we had seen the toad as best we could, but as you would imagine, the toad hadn't sat there and waited for our return. He was long gone. The irony of the situation is that we had 3 cameras, 2 GPS units, and bags galore that we could have put the toad in, but we didn't use any of them. We just didn't think it was noteworthy. Lesson learned.

On our way out of Kansas, we poked around some rock piles to see what else we could turn up and, among other things, we found 2 prairie rattlesnakes. The majority of prairie rattlesnakes that I have encountered have been during herp work for a nuclear arms holding facility (i.e. no pictures allowed), so this was my first real opportunity to get a good picture.

So, no county record, but a fun day nonetheless.

Prairie rattlesnake

Florida Spring Break '07

I spent this year's Spring Break in Florida, a state I had never visited. While thousands of people flock to Florida during Spring Break for a week of drunken debauchery, I was there with a group of friends for acompletely different purpose: To herp!

With most of the state seeing warm temperatures year round, Florida is great for reptiles and amphibians. "Great" in that the state is home to many awesome native species, but also "great" in a bad way. Because of its temps and its function as a major port for importing and exporting, Florida has also become home to many exotic species including species of birds, fish, reptiles, amphibians, and plants. In fact, exotic species outnumber native species in many places in Florida. Most of our group was herpers, but also conservationally-aware people: We liked catching the exotics that we saw, but we were also upset by their abundance and what that potentially means for native wildlife.

Our trip (very long car trip, by the way) first saw us in Apalachicola National Forest in the panhandle of Florida. You might think of Florida as beaches and swamps, but the panhandle is mostly conifer forest. We knew upon entering Florida that we were going to be exhausted from the drive and there was a chance for some cool herps in the panhandle (scarlet kingsnakes, glass lizards, and eastern diamondback rattlesnakes, to name a few), so we decided to rest there, camping in the forest. Here we saw southern cricket frogs* (a new species for me), a few common lizards, a few water snakes, and alligators in virtually every body of water.

Apalachicola National Forest

Southern cricket frog

American alligators in a roadside canal

From the panhandle, we drove south to Gaspirilla Island in Lee County. We drove overnight to reach a beach access point that 2 of my friends had visited in a previous trip. They had seen some cool herps there, so we were all up for them leading us back. All along the sand dunes at the edge of the beach were burrows being used by a large exotic lizard species, the black spinytail iguana. Try as we might (from the areas we were allowed on) we couldn't catch the iguanas, who fled across the sand at breakneck speed. Some of the adults were huge, pushing 4 feet in length. We also saw a gopher tortoise* (a native) in a burrow. Gopher tortoises are so protected that we probably weren't even supposed to look at him, but we did...but that was all! By finding the gopher tortoise, I had seen every native tortoise species in the United States (including the Texas tortoises that were prevalent on my research study site in south Texas, and desert tortoises in the southwest). There's one other native tort in North America, but that will require a trip into Mexico (Bolson's tortoise). At the beach, we also caught a southeastern five-lined skink*, another new species for me, a southern black racer, and another exotic species, the brown anole.

After the beach, we drove to Florida City, where our hotel would be our base of operations for the rest of our time. That night, we did some road cruising in the city and found several species. Near a tree nursery, we caught 3 cane toads (AKA marine toads), and exotic species. At lighted billboards and entrance gates to condos, we found tropical geckos, Cuban treefrogs, and more brown anoles...all exotic species. We did find a few natives too though. Most noteworthy being my first corn snake*.

Cane toad

Cuban treefrog

Corn snake

Having been there before, my friends knew a few urban places that were good for exotics. The next morning, we visted a hotel in Doral and found bark anoles, giant ameivas, and more brown anoles. The ameivas are like giant versions of our native whiptail lizards. It blew my mind to see such a large lizard, in fairly plentiful numbers, persisting in nothing more than the landscape shrubs around a hotel. A had a noose pole with me (explained later), but the best way to catch the ameivas for us was to coral them with several people, diving at them as they tried to escape the circle.

Bark anole

Giant ameiva

The next stop took us into the keys, at a place called Crandon Garden on Key Biscayne. Crandon Garden was apparently a small zoo at one point, as evidenced by cages and pit enclosures. Now it's just a city park near the beach where people come to walk trails or feed the birds. Of course, we came to herp. This was another place my friends had already been to, so we knew it would be a good stop. Having some idea of what species to expect, I brought my noose pole. A noose pole is simply a fishing pole with a noose tied at the end for herping purposes. Many lizards are hard, if not impossible, to catch on foot. However, for some reason, most don't mind you poking at them with a stick...or fishing pole. My noose pole is a 10-foot telescoping fishing pole with no reel or eyelets. At the end of such a pole, you can tie a slip noose or snare with dental floss or string (so as not to cut the target animal), reach out to a lizard with the pole, slip the noose over its neck, and gently pull towards yourself, catching the animal. A friend can then run to the end of the pole to secure the suspended catch. For exotic herps at the gardens, we saw huge green iguanas that snapped my dental floss noose without even trying (5+ feet), Sonoran spinytail iguanas (which were easily caught by noose), a Puerto Rican crested anole that we shook from a tree, and a brown baslisk (also noosed). I had seen Sonoran spinytail iguanas at yet another non-native site (see "The Big A-Z" post), but hadn't had an opportunity to catch them. The Brown Basilisk was a very cool find. Both of the aforementioned iguanas and brown basilisk were plentiful along a watercourse that ran through the property. Upon approach, the iguanas would dive into the water from their tree perches, appearing soon thereafter on the opposite bank. The basilisks, on the other hand, have a different means of escape. Basilisks have entremely long hind-foot toes in relation to their body size. This creates enough surface tension on the water to allow the smaller individuals to run across the surface without even a hint of submerging. We got to witness this ability firsthand, one that has earned them the nickname "Jesus" or "Christ" lizards for walking on water, a feat I had only before seen on TV. Along with the numerous exotics, I also got another first in seeing Florida softshell* in the same waterway.

Sonoran spinytail iguana a la noose pole

Puerto Rican crested anole

Brown basilisk

We then headed on to other key islands. On Sugarloaf Key, we found more tropical geckos and Cuban treefrogs (both exotics). On Marathon Key, we found a Greenhouse frog (another exotic). We also saw 2 endangered key deer on our way through the keys, making our way to mile marker zero on Key West. We had dinner in the infamous Margaritaville and in a stroke of irony, one of our party literally "blew out [her] flip-flop", as the song goes, just as we entered. The beaches in the keys were postcard spectacular, with crystal-blue water, palm and cocoanut trees, and fantastic sunsets.

Greenhouse frog

What herping trip to Florida would be complete without visiting Everglades National Park. Along with some great birding in the park, we found some native herps (finally). We saw a Florida cottonmouth and an eastern diamondback rattlesnake* (roadkill, unfortunately).

Florida cottonmouth

Leaving the swamp, we roadcruised highway 41, which I termed "The Road of Death" afterwards. The stretch of the road that we were on was bordered by flooded, swamp field on one side and a man-made water canal on the other. Apparently there is a lot of movement between the two sides because, as my nickname implies, there are tons of dead reptiles and amphibians all over the road. There were the occasional live ones here and there, but every 20 feet or so, we were stopping for another dead frog, snake, or turtle. In amongst the carnage, we found brown snake, brown water snake*, southern leopard frog, Florida redbelly turtle*, Florida green watersnake*, and a pig frog*. The prize find for our last evening in Florida was a black swamp snake*, dead, but in good shape and an extremely cool lifer nonetheless.

My first trip to Florida was a great time and a pretty good herping success, I'd say. Besides, where else can you see roadkill alligator?

*: Indicates a "lifer," a species I hadn't seen before

I highly recommend The Exotic Amphibians and Reptiles of Florida to anyone herping in that state.

Herping in February!?

Black skimmers (black backs; background) and Laughing gulls

While recently attending the annual meeting of the Texas Chapter of the Wildlife Society, where several of our group gave presentations about our research, we managed to do some fortuitous herping. I say "fortuitous" because even though we were near the Texas coast (Beaumont, Anahuac, etc.) it wasn't that warm. It is still February after all. A lot of herps are still hibernating. We were driving around places to do birdwatching, but we happened to see a few herps too.

From the Texas panhandle to the gulf coast is about an 11-hour drive. Rather than driving the long distance in one shot, we decided to overnight at a wildlife management area (WMA), near my hometown (see "Hometown Herpin'" post below for habitat description), that we've visited before. Since my last trip there, we now have 2 students doing research there, with a third to start soon. While we were there, temperatures were getting into the 70's during the day, but it was cooling off considerably at night, making less-than-ideal conditions for herps. Spring peepers (a very small frog) were already "peeping" though. Their call resembles the peep of a baby chicken. We found a shallow area where we could get close to their calls without flooding our boots, and by focusing on one call, creeping closer, and then remaining motionless when the call stopped, my advisor caught one and I caught another.

Spring peeper

There were also northern cricket frogs by a small creek, just behind the bunkhouse we were staying in. Although a common species, we were lucky to find the cricket frogs because they weren't calling.

Northern cricket frogs

We saw a few other herps at Gus Engeling WMA, including American alligator, eastern river cooter, American bullfrog, and red-eared sliders (turtles). We also heard gray treefrogs, green treefrogs, and southern leopard frogs calling.

After out lay-over, we continued the drive south to Beaumont for the meeting, and visited some wildlife viewing areas in our spare time.

We stopped ata city park in Beaumont for birdwatching and some incidental rock flipping and walking around found a ground skink, 2 brown snakes, a Texas ratsnake, a green treefrog, and an introduced species, the Mediterranean gecko.

Ground skink

Brown snake

One place we visited yielded more than we might have guessed. We birded at Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge until sunset and on the drive back, we found 3 more herp species: Mississippi green water snake, Graham's crayfish snake, and squirrel treefrog. All 3 of them were "lifers" for me (species that I had never seen in the wild before) and all of them came in the span of about 20 minutes. I don't think I've ever found so many new species in such a short amount of time. I'm sorry that the pictures of the lifers are so bad. These were taken at night in virtual darkness, so I really didn't know if I was focused or not. On the brightside (no pun intended), at least you can tell what they are.

Mississippi green water snake

Graham's crayfish snake

Squirrel treefrog

Around the coast we also saw an eastern mud turtle, more red-eared sliders, and plenty of alligators. The meeting went well, we found some cool birds, and I saw 3 new herps...all in winter! If I'm having this much luck now, then I can't wait for spring!

Green treefrog (left) and Squirrel treefrog

Kansas Herpetological Society

I just got back from my 3rd year of attending the annual meeting of the Kansas Herpetological Society (KHS), where I presented "Texas Horned Lizard Diet: Annual Differences and Management Effects," some of the work I've been doing for my thesis. There are a lot of big names in herp research associated with the KHS and it's a lot of fun just to hang out and talk with other people who are interested in herpetology. There are presentations and social events, and we usually find the time to squeeze in some herping during the weekend that we're there. The weather this fall has seemed to be getting a lot cooler, a lot faster than last year, so we didn't have high hopes for finding many herps. We were bird watching primarily, but our group did manage to turn up a few things. Enjoy the pictures!

Red-sided garter snake

Massasauga* ( a small species of rattlesnake; this one is a baby)

(pic on the way)
Bullsnake

We also found Italian wall lizards* (an introduced species), painted turtles*, and a bullfrog (none pictured).

* :indicates a "lifer" (a species that I had never seen before).

Got Milk?

Some herpers (and enthusiasts interested in other taxa) keep a list of species they have seen, sometimes called a "life list." Some keep an actual printed list, some put checkmarks in field guides, and some (like me) just rely on memory. It's a source of pride for some, motivation for others. With the large number of species to be seen, you can imagine that there are often gaps in these lists, representing animals that have yet to be found by the person. It's funny how people who have herped for years and years might not have seen some very commonplace species. You can't always be in the right place at the right time.

One gap in my "list" that I have obsessed about is the milksnake. There are many subspecies of this snake that occur in both North and South America. I've been in the range of several subspecies for extended periods of time, but I never found one. While I lived in south Texas for a total of about 6 months for my thesis, I was in the company of Mexican milksnakes, but never saw one. There are Louisiana milksnakes where I grew up, but no luck there either. There are Central Plains milksnakes where I have been attending school for the last 3 years, but I had never found one...until recently.

I work part-time as a field assistant, monitoring the herptofauna of a nuclear arms holding facility in the Texas panhandle. We do radiotelemetry on prairie rattlesnakes and Texas horned lizards, along with finding, marking, and recording any other reptile or amphibian species we come across. A couple of months ago, the area received a huge soaking from several days of rain. Rain can mobilize many herp species, so I was checking coverboards (pieces of wood placed on the ground to encourage animals to use them as shelter, etc.) for whatever I might find. I had lifted a few boards (and carefully placed them back where they originally rested), when I lifted another to find 3 desert centipedes. These are huge black and yellow centipedes whose bite is supposed to be pretty fierce. They're an invertebrate that has been known to prey on vertebrates! I was lowering the board back into place when I thought that one of the centipedes didn't look quite right. I lifted the board again to find 2 centipedes and a little milksnake. The rains must have flooded whatever hiding spot it was in, and it had been using the coverboard for shelter. I snatched it up and it didn't fight at all. It was actually very docile.

Milksnakes are so termed because of an old misbelief that they stole milk from farm animals. Farmers would find milksnakes in and around barns apparently, and chalked their presence up to an association with milk, not to an association with rodents that frequent barns. They share the same colors as some venomous coral snake species, but are harmless. To differentiate corals snakes and milksnakes, you've probably heard the old rhyme, "Red on yellow, kill a fellow. Red on black, friend of Jack (or "venom lack")." That is, in the coral snake, the red and yellow bands are adjacent to each other. In the milksnake, red and black bands border each other.

Not that the facility where I do work has poor habitat, but I would never have suspected to find a milksnake here. It was the first, documented find of the species for the facility, by the way. I hope you enjoy the pictures as much as I did finding this species that has been my bane for some time.

Central plains milksnake

The Big A-Z

Greater earless lizard

Well, after 13 days of traveling around Arizona, I'm back and exhausted. I think I'm still in shock from the trip for a couple of reasons. For starters, being in and out of campsites and hotel rooms and living out of a suitcase would make anyone feel like a transient. Its nice to be back and not have to hurry to be anywhere at sunrise or dusk, prime basking and moving times. I think I'm also shocked because in that almost-2-week time period, I managed to see 45 species of herps, 34 of which were "lifers" (species I had never seen before). I had never been to Arizona or to California, which we also squeezed in, so almost everything I saw was new to me. It didn't hurt that we were very lucky in finding a few not-so-common species. Also, it was just me and my advisor for most of the trip, so for 2 people finding 45 species in that time period is pretty decent, I'd say.

Our trip started in the southeastern tip of Arizona in the Chiracahua ("cheer-rah-cow-wah") Mountains in Coronado National Forest. After a long day of driving, we were finally on the road to our campsite just as it was getting dark and a steady rain was coming down. I was tired from traveling all day and I was thinking about how much fun it was going to be to set my tent up in the rain, not really concerning myself with herping yet, when we spot a snake in our headlights. My advisor jumps out first and yells back to the truck, "Get the tongs! Its a lepidus!" That term probably means nothing to you, but any grogginess from the drive immediately wore off when I heard it because I knew we had just found one of the species I really wanted to see on the trip: A rock rattlesnake. You can see in the pictures just how cryptic one of these snakes would be against its native rock. I think they're one of the most beautiful rattlesnakes, and yes, I do think snakes can have beauty. We weren't even to our campsite yet, and we had already found a species on my wish list of things to see. I didn't mind putting my tent up in the rain too much after that.

Chiracahua Mountains

(Banded) Rock Rattlesnake

The next morning, we didn't have to go far to our next herping site. My advisor knew where to find a certain species of rattlesnake because he had seen one there last year, but was unable to catch it. Our campsite was at the base of a peak with slopes made of various sizes of loose rock. These rock slides are called tallus slopes and they're a great place to find twin-spotted rattlesnakes, another montane rattlesnake species. Walking (and I use that term loosely) up the tallus slopes is quite a work-out. For every step of progress you make on all fours, you slide back a bit. Keep in mind, too, that all the while that you're stubbling and gasping in the thin air (we were at over 8,000 feet above sea level), you're also looking for a venomous animal. We split up and I followed one slope all the way the top where there was a nice waterfall and an endangered snail species, the tallus snail, but no snakes. I did, however, manage to catch a few Yarrow spiny lizards.

Tallus slope

Yarrow spiny lizard

I made my way down to the bottom and watched as my advisor was doing the same, when he yells again. "Bingo!" declared that he had found what we had been exerting ourselves for: A twin-spotted rattlesnake. You usually employ a pair of tongs to handle a venomous snake, but with a small snake in a very complex habitat in which it could disappear into an unfathomable number of cracks between the rocks, you'll miss with tongs. With insight from missing a twin-spot with tongs at the same location last year , my advisor knew to bring welder's gloves. With the gloves, you can grab a tiny snake before it vanishes down a crack, and you have a pretty good chance of staying venom-free. Now, I should add that such a technique is only useful on a placid, small venomous snake such as the twin-spotted rattlesnake. A larger snake's fangs would probably not even be slowed down by welder's gloves. We also used the gloves to maneuver the baby snake around for picture-taking.

Twin-spotted rattlesnake

We camped at another, lower elevation campsite in the foothills of the Chiracahua Mountains the second night. Instead of pine/fir forest like the top of the mountains, the foothills are more deciduous forests. After a busy morning, my advisor took a nap as I hiked around the campground. Not far from the tents, I spotted a banded tail slipping under some rocks. I ran over to see what it was, lifted the top rock, and out shot an alligator lizard. I completely missed it as it darted under a boulder larger than my apartment. I wanted to see an alligator lizard (and I mean a real good look) so badly that I sat by that boulder, hoping it would come out again, for almost an hour. After giving up, I ventured further down a trail, still not far from the campsite, and I saw another one. I missed again. Now I was really upset. We had picked this campground based largely on our belief that alligator lizards might be there, a species neither one of us had ever seen. I now had seen them, and missed them. I walked back to the campsite, dejected, and put my lizard noose back in truck. My advisor wasn't up yet, so I decided to hit the trail again. I'm glad I did. Not 20 feet from my tent, I saw yet another alligator lizard and pounced on it, literally. I had my elusive Madrean alligator lizard.

Madrean alligator lizard

With my find in hand, I ran to wake up my advisor (who had already roused) and show him my find. Having made the catch just a few minutes prior, we decided that we might still be able to find more out-and-about at that time of day, so we started hiking. I showed my advisor the spot where I had found the lizard, and something rattled at us. I sprint back to the truck to grab tongs because I knew it was a rattlesnake. My advisor had the sound pinpointed and with the tongs we was able to poke at, but not grab, another rock rattlesnake at the base of another humongous boulder. I noticed the snake moving to the right, but my advsior was looking to the left. Thinking that the sound was reverberating against the stone causing him to lose the snake's position, I mentioned that the snake had moved to the right. He said, "I know, but there's another rattle coming from right over there." He was right. There was not one, but two rock rattlesnakes not 20 feet from our camp.

(Banded) Rock rattlesnake

From the Chiracahua Mountains, we headed west to the Tucson area to check out a few spots. We first visited Catalina State Park where we hiked a trail loop a couple of times before noticing a small desert tortoise, chewing on some plant in the shade of a large rock. That was my first desert tortoise, but I was assured that I would find more at a place that was teaming with them. At the state park, we also found a gopher snake and some cool lizards.

(Desert tortoise picture coming soon)

We next visited the Sonoran Desert Museum, a must-see if you ever find yourself in Arizona. The museum is more accurately a zoo with many species that occur in the Sonoran Desert or that did historically. You can stroll around and enjoy the exhibits, but any herper with an acquaintance with the state knows that because the property is landscaped with native vegetation, a lot of desert reptiles and amphibians like to hang out there. Like the state parks, you can't herp there because it is a sanctuary of sorts, but the animals (even the free-ranging ones) are habituated to human activity so you can get pretty close with a camera. There is a free-ranging population of Sonoran spiny-tailed iguanas, a native of Mexico, that has been established here. I also spotted another species on my wish list while walking around: The regal horned lizard. I couldn't grab him or position him for any pictures as I stated earlier, but it was really great to add another species of horned lizard to my list. It turns out that I would have another chance at actually catching a regal horned lizard later in the trip, but for now, I was very content.

Sonoran spiny-tailed iguana

That afternoon we drove south to a road famous to many herpers everywhere. Ruby Road is a winding, mountain road, unpaved for its majority, that skirts the south edge of Arizona, only a few miles away from the Mexico border. Because of its proximity to the border, there are some predominantly Mexican species, that can be found there, whose ranges barely come into the states. Vine snakes, hook-nosed snakes, and green ratsnakes (rare, prize finds for herpers) have all been found there. We weren't lucky enough to see any of those species, but we did find 3 black-tailed rattlesnakes, a Mexican spadefoot, and a canyon treefrog, all firsts for me.

The view from Ruby Road

Black-tailed rattlesnake

Mexican spadefoot

Canyon treefrog

Towards the bottom of Ruby Road, there is a hiking trail called Sycamore Canyon that we decided to check out. Jaguars have actually been spotted by motion-activated cameras in Sycamore Canyon recently. We didn't see any big cats, but we did find Clark's spiny lizard. Even though the stop only yielded one new species, the scenery was incredible.

Sycamore Canyon

Clark's spiny lizard

The next day, my advisor was to drop me off with a friend, who was interning for the summer with Arizona's wildlife management organization, and his family in Phoenix. My advisor had a ecological assessment job that would keep him busy for a few days. Aside from the city, Phoenix was beautiful. The area is Sonoran Desert, dotted in many places by a desert icon, the saguaro cactus. These long-lived giants don't even start to branch until they are around 70 years-old. The first night I was in Phoenix, my friend and I went road-cruising where he was working for the summer. He had seen several regal horned lizards there, so I was excited about the chance of catching one and not being constrained in my efforts. We didn't see any horned lizards, but we did catch a Sonoran desert toad, the largest native species of toad in the United States, and a long-nosed snake. I had seen the snake before, but not the toad, and vice versa for my friend, so we each got a lifer that night.

Sonoran Desert with saguaro cacti

Sonoran Desert toad

In the morning, my friend and I set out at the crack of dawn to go hike a really neat area called Sugarloaf, the spot where I was pretty much guaranteed to find more desert tortoises, and a known locale for tiger rattlesnakes and the infamous Gila monster. Completely giving up hope for seeing any somewhat-rare species, I was focused on scanning boulder crevices for tortoises. The terrain at Sugarloaf wasn't any easier than the mountains. The place is scattered with piles of huge boulders that you have to literally climb on top of and over in some places. We had gone over one side of a slope and were coming down the other when I jumped down from a large boulder and scanned the underside. There, sitting calmly and staring back at me, was a large, orange and black lizard. I yelled to my friend, who had the tongs, "Gila! Gila!" as I just found the icon of herping in Arizona in my opinion, the Gila monster. The Gila monster is the largest native lizard in the United States and is venomous, hence my yelling for the tongs. Needless to say for 2 Texans herping in Arizona and finding what we believed to be the pinnacle, we were a bit happy. We took gobs of pictures and sat in awe for awhile before letting the Gila return to his burrow under the boulder. The trip could have ended at that point as far as I was concerned, but we continued our hike. We found some of the common lizard species for that area and a family of spotted skunks, but nothing extremely noteworthy. Go figure: We go to a spot that is suppose to guarantee us seeing desert tortoises, and we don't see a one. Instead, we find a Gila monster! I'm glad I had seen that little tortoise earlier.

Sugarloaf

Gila monster

The night of that afternoon's Gila find, my friend and I went road cruising and found a few more things. We caught several Couch's spadefoots calling in the rain, and we found a couple of Arizona green toads, another first for me.

The next day, my friends were moving out of their apartment and heading back to Texas and my advisor was done with his job, so he picked me up and we headed west to Yuma, Arizona. We set up our base of operations in a hotel in Yuma and went to a place referred to as the Vekol Valley. This Bureau of Land Management property has suprising diversity for being hot, flat desert. We found another Sonoran desert toad, a great plains narrowmouth, zebra-tailed lizards, desert iguanas, a sidewinder (a rattlesnake), and a Mohave rattlesnake, to name a few. I was also able to actually catch and get decent pictures of another regal horned lizard at this site. On the drive out, we stopped beside a tree to check out a map. As my advisor was finding directions, I spotted a lizard in the nearby tree. I knew it was a lizard in the genus Urosaurus, which would typically mean that it was a species called tree lizard, a lizard fairly common all over Arizona. However, we were in an area where another species in this genus is possible. Knowing that, I grabbed a noose and slowly started working the loop towards the lizard, resting on a branch. I missed my first attempt, but on the second try I slipped the noose over the lizard and he was caught. Upon examination, it was, indeed, the less common species in this genus. It was a long-tailed brush lizard.

Desert iguana

Mohave rattlesnake

Regal horned lizard

Long-tailed brush lizard

After the Vekol we decided to head even further west into California. Just over the southwestern border of Arizona are the Imperial Sand Dunes in California. We wanted to go to the sand dunes with a couple of hopes in mind. Flat-tailed horned lizards reside there, as well as a very cool species of lizard that belongs to a group (genus) referred to as the fringe-toed lizards. The fringe-toed lizards have evolved to a life in the sand and have several amazing adaptations that aide them in such a harsh environment. The fringe-toed lizards are so named because they have enlarged scales between their toes that allow them to stay atop the sand as they run. They also have little extensions around their ears that help keep the sand out. Velvety skin and movable nose plugs let the lizards dive into the sand to avoid predators (or herpers). We saw tracks of animals all over the dunes, but not many actual animals. We didn't find any flat-tailed horned lizards like we might have hoped, but we did manage to see a couple of Colorado desert fringe-toed lizards. However, these guys are extremely fast, so we didn't get any pictures.

Imperial Sand Dunes in California

Now that I had seen my second new state of the trip, we headed back east to the Phoenix area. There is a city park that has a healthy population of a really cool rock-dwelling lizard called common chuckwalla. Chuckwallas are a large, stocky lizard that wile away their days perched on rock and boulder piles. At even a hint of danger, the "chucks" zip to a rock crevice to hide. Even if a predator was observant of their hiding place, the chuckwallas have another defense. These lizards inflate their bodies and wedge themselves in even tighter. Because they are so flighty, I could never get a great picture of them, unfortunately.

A very bad picture of a very nervous common chuckwalla

This city park (South Mountain) is also known for speckled rattlesnakes. My advisor saw one there last year, so a return trip was a given. We got to the park fairly early in the morning and started walking a trail. This park is very protective (and rightfully so) of their reptile residents, so herping is restricted to binoculars and cameras (no catching). We walked up the trail for awhile and started heading back down when we saw, just beside the trail, a speckled rattlesnake, and a good-sized one at that. I dropped my pack and started getting my camera out when the snake bolted and disappeared under a rock. We got a nice look at the snake, but again, no pictures.

Leaving Phoenix for the second time, we were bound for our last herping spot. Just northeast of the Phoenix area is a huge escarpment called the Mogollon ("mowgie-own") Rim. We were directed to this spot by a friend because he saw many individuals of a really cool lizard running all over the forest roads there not too long ago. We drove around for awhile, looking for a place to camp when we stopped for a bathroom break at a campsite with facilities. My advisor stepped out of the truck and looked down to see something running. With that catch, I got to see my second new horned lizard species on the trip. He had found a baby greater short-horned lizard, the lizard our friend had described as being prevalent in the area.

Greater short-horned lizard

At the same stop, we also found plateau lizards, a new species of Sceloporus for me.

Plateau lizard

After finding a campsite we liked, we set up camp and as we were unrolling our tents, I heard a frog calling from behind us, not far away at all. I thought it was a chorus frog at first, but my advisor thought it was more like a treefrog sound. Either way, we were excited, and started walking that way with our headlamps as soon as the tents were up. We positioned ourselves on either side of a small, flooded area where we heard the closest call. My advisor has recording equipment for frog and bird calls that we encounter on our trips, and he can instantly play the recordings back. Whatever was calling near us had stopped as we approached, even after we turned our lights off and stood in silence, but luckily was enticed into calling again by hearing the recording of itself. I grabbed in out of the water and it was a beautiful Arizona treefrog, that state's official amphibian.

Arizona treefrog

That night, as I was getting ready to go to bed, I saw something moving at my feet as I was brushing my teeth. I grabbed it and it was another new species for me and for our trip list, an Arizona toad.

Arizona toad

Having found virtually everything we had hoped for and more, we started the drive back to the Texas panhandle the next afternoon after an exhausting, but very productive, herping trip in "the Grand Canyon State." Knowing where to look and having a bit of luck really payed off. I didn't post some of the more common species, but I hope you've enjoyed all the pictures here.

Note: My advisor had a permit (on which I was an authorized collecting agent) that allowed us to capture, photograph, and release reptiles and amphibians (including protected species) in every county in Arizona.