Looking up a the right time...

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chrish
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Looking up a the right time...

Post by chrish »

I was out in far West Texas this weekend on some other business and thought I would do a bit of nighttime herping. From my years of living out there, I knew I was a bit too early for this far western tip of Texas. Unlike the "traditional" west TX herping areas, the far western counties don't get good for herping until you get the combination of sunset at around 9:00pm and low temps at night above 60°. That is still a couple of weeks away. But I was there so I went out anyway.

It was slow and cold, as expected. In fact, after the sun set and temperatures began to plummet (it was 55° by 10:30 the first night!), I began to focus on other interests. I took photos of the stars and was trying to record the sounds of the desert at night (insects, Common Poorwills, etc). I stopped at a roadcut along a normally very quiet road and heard an interesting insect call. So I got out my recording gear and set it up and stood there quietly in the dark while I tried to record it. It was in the upper 60s, and after a few seconds of recording, I wanted to check the levels on the recorder. I turned around the edge of my flashlight beam happened onto the cut a few feet from where I had been standing and out of the corner of my eye I spotted this familiar pattern in a crevice (sorry, autofocus preferred the rocks and this was after I walked back to my car to get the camera and less of the animal was visible) -

Image

So I turned off the light and walked over to an area where this opening came back out onto the cut and was eventually rewarded with this in situ shot.

Image

Neat critters and one of my favorites. I turned off the light and left it to explore the intricacies of the cut in the dark.
Jacob
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Joined: July 1st, 2010, 8:07 pm

Re: Looking up a the right time...

Post by Jacob »

Awesome. I am learning to just listen rather than "shine". Great stuff
reako45
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Joined: June 12th, 2010, 9:38 am

Re: Looking up a the right time...

Post by reako45 »

That's a beautiful sight. I'd love to see a suboc in situ some day. That one looks big. 4'+?

reako45
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chrish
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Re: Looking up a the right time...

Post by chrish »

reako45 wrote:That's a beautiful sight. I'd love to see a suboc in situ some day. That one looks big. 4'+?

reako45
No. Actually about a 3 footer. Probably a 2 year old?
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