Post by Nathan Hutcherson on Feb 15, 2014 7:36:37 GMT
The day started out with my Dad (BobH) and I arriving first at a well known irrigation canal that runs from a certain lake in Southern California to a small town near the Mexican border. The 2 of us walked down a portion of the canal and caught a couple of lizards while we waited for the others.
My Dad flipped a piece of AC and found this adult female Western (Coronado)Skink.
Then we snagged one of the many Side-blotched Lizards that run along the sides of the "canal".
Western Fence Lizards were out and about also.
Habitat Photo
Rob Black showed up shortly and then there were three...
Sadly, the first snake of the day was this drowned Lyre Snake that I fished out of the canal.
After a couple of hours of not seeing much, Nathan Edwards arrived. That made every member of the Christian Herp Club present! All 4 of us!
Rob couldn't resist showing off (understandably)some of his private snake collection like this screaming male "Coastal" Rosy Boa (or Northern Three-lined Boa). It appears to have some albinism, but Rob can chime in to fill in the details. He has had this guy for quite a few years and its a proven breeder.
Some rock flipping fun:
So we all rolled to a nearby spot where I flipped a Rosy and a Red Diamond Rattlesnake in a short amount of time on a solo outing a couple of years back.
Right after we all got out of the vehicles, Nathan Edwards flips his first rock of the day and yells out.... wait for it...... BLACK-HEADED SNAKE!!! For anyone familiar with herping Southern California, you know how difficult this particular species can be to find. This was a lifer for Nathan E and I had not seen one in at least 2 years! But, before Nathan could grab it, it slid down a hole and out of sight! All four of us were frantically digging trying to catch the tiny serpent within the burrow, but to no avail. We all decided to continue flipping rocks in the (unlikely) hope that we would find another one.
About an hour later, I scrambled down the hill to a nice grouping of dark gray granite rocks and boulders. I made my way around the edge of the outcrop and found this little gem under a nice slab.
A closeup of this little guy, probably born in September or October of last year.
So I was yelling ROSY! ROSY! Hey guys, I found a rosy! and I hear Nathan E. call out, BLACK HEAD! I GOT IT!......
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He had returned to where he saw the Black-headed snake earlier and with fervent determination and perseverance managed to dig up and lift a giant rock next to where it had been. As soon as he lifted it, out shot the Tantilla planiceps.
This was definitely the find of the day!
We began giving Rob a hard time about not finding any snakes yet...
But as Rob usually does, he came through with a pretty awesome find.
We all went back to the outcrop where I found the baby boa to release it after the photo shoot. As soon as we got there, Rob flipped a couple of slabs of granite and calmly came up with this ancient Rosy.
She was battle scarred and emaciated and I wished I had a couple of rat pups to feed her.
After a couple of photos to show her immense length, we released her back under the safety of her granite slab.
After that, we were running out of daylight. We searched around a bit and saw a granite night lizard, a granite spiny lizard, and a couple more side-blotched's but couldn't get any photos. And with the setting sun came cold temperatures, and the first ever outing of the 4-man Christian Herpetology Club was over.
That's all folks, for now.
My Dad flipped a piece of AC and found this adult female Western (Coronado)Skink.
Then we snagged one of the many Side-blotched Lizards that run along the sides of the "canal".
Western Fence Lizards were out and about also.
Habitat Photo
Rob Black showed up shortly and then there were three...
Sadly, the first snake of the day was this drowned Lyre Snake that I fished out of the canal.
After a couple of hours of not seeing much, Nathan Edwards arrived. That made every member of the Christian Herp Club present! All 4 of us!
Rob couldn't resist showing off (understandably)some of his private snake collection like this screaming male "Coastal" Rosy Boa (or Northern Three-lined Boa). It appears to have some albinism, but Rob can chime in to fill in the details. He has had this guy for quite a few years and its a proven breeder.
Some rock flipping fun:
So we all rolled to a nearby spot where I flipped a Rosy and a Red Diamond Rattlesnake in a short amount of time on a solo outing a couple of years back.
Right after we all got out of the vehicles, Nathan Edwards flips his first rock of the day and yells out.... wait for it...... BLACK-HEADED SNAKE!!! For anyone familiar with herping Southern California, you know how difficult this particular species can be to find. This was a lifer for Nathan E and I had not seen one in at least 2 years! But, before Nathan could grab it, it slid down a hole and out of sight! All four of us were frantically digging trying to catch the tiny serpent within the burrow, but to no avail. We all decided to continue flipping rocks in the (unlikely) hope that we would find another one.
About an hour later, I scrambled down the hill to a nice grouping of dark gray granite rocks and boulders. I made my way around the edge of the outcrop and found this little gem under a nice slab.
A closeup of this little guy, probably born in September or October of last year.
So I was yelling ROSY! ROSY! Hey guys, I found a rosy! and I hear Nathan E. call out, BLACK HEAD! I GOT IT!......
He had returned to where he saw the Black-headed snake earlier and with fervent determination and perseverance managed to dig up and lift a giant rock next to where it had been. As soon as he lifted it, out shot the Tantilla planiceps.
This was definitely the find of the day!
We began giving Rob a hard time about not finding any snakes yet...
But as Rob usually does, he came through with a pretty awesome find.
We all went back to the outcrop where I found the baby boa to release it after the photo shoot. As soon as we got there, Rob flipped a couple of slabs of granite and calmly came up with this ancient Rosy.
She was battle scarred and emaciated and I wished I had a couple of rat pups to feed her.
After a couple of photos to show her immense length, we released her back under the safety of her granite slab.
After that, we were running out of daylight. We searched around a bit and saw a granite night lizard, a granite spiny lizard, and a couple more side-blotched's but couldn't get any photos. And with the setting sun came cold temperatures, and the first ever outing of the 4-man Christian Herpetology Club was over.
That's all folks, for now.
