Recent AZ trip with some ID requests

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herpseeker1978
Posts: 1139
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 8:05 am
Location: Albuquerque

Recent AZ trip with some ID requests

Post by herpseeker1978 »

This year we finally took our southeastern AZ trip. We have had one planned several times but something always came up, ie lack of funds, death in the family etc. We finally made it!

Our first day we drove down partway to one of our spots in NM to cruise for subocs and trimorphodon. All we turned up was a few of these:
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Western Diamond-backed Rattlesnake (Crotalus atrox)

We hit our hotel and woke up around 3:00am and hit the road. We actually cruised an atrox at 4:00am in NM, but I can't find a picture of it, pretty sure I took one, no idea what happened to it...We stopped in Lordsburg for gas and breakfast and then headed towards Rodeo. We found this on the way there:
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Desert Box Turtle (Terrapene ornata luteola)

We headed into the Chiris and it was too cold for anything to be out, so we headed over to the Chiricahua Desert Museum to check it out:
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We had to pose the kids on this statue. Charlie Painter helped to make this and we felt we needed to visit it to honor his memory as he was a good friend to us and herps alike :thumb:

We took a walk through the museum and through the gardens:
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Desert Tortoise (Gopherus agassizii)

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Eastern Collared Lizard (Crotaphytus collaris)

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Wandering Gartersnake (Thamnophis elegans vagrans)

After the museum we decided to head to Tucson, we will need to hit the Chiris another time, the one thing I regret about this tip was trying to do too much! We stopped at a rest area along I-10 and I found this whiptail:
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Desert Grassland Whiptail (Aspidoscelis uniparens)

We arrived at our hotel and went swimming and then headed out to see Terry Cox's yard. He had a very beautiful and well taken care of yard. We were very impressed! It was still quite warm, so we only saw a few lizards, this was the only one I got a photo of:
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Eastern Zebra-tailed Lizard (Callisaurus draconoides ventralis)

We then commenced our first night of SE AZ road cruising! All we found was this beauty:
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Black-tailed Rattlesnake (Crotalus molossus)
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The next morning we got up and met with a friend who wishes to remain anonymous to do some hiking. On the road to meet our friend, we found these:
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bird - anyone have an ID? Flicker?

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Sonoran Desert Toad (Ollotis alvaria)

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Black-tailed Rattlesnake (Crotalus molossus)
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We arrived at our destination and began our search:

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Zebratail? Earless?

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Butterfly

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Canyon Treefrog (Hyla arenicolor)

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Arizona Black Rattlesnake (Crotalus cerberus)
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Stripe-tailed Scorpion

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Another whiptail, looks like uniparens

We were headed back to the car and found this stock pond and saw three turtles out basking, two dove before I got this shot and then it dove as well after a bit:
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Sonoran Mud Turtle (Kinosternon sonoriense)

Found this lizard at the parking area:
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Schott's Tree Lizard (Urosaurus ornatus schottii)

We met went back to the hotel and showered and beat the over 100 degree heat by going to see the Minions movie and made Chloe really happy. We grabbed a bite to eat and then met up with another friend for some cruising. We got a dor atrox and a Desert toad that got off the road by the time we turned around and saw a Banded Gecko jet off the road, but otherwise, got skunked. When we dropped our friend off at his house we searched his yard and found these:
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Turkish House Gecko (Hemidactylus turcicus turcicus)
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Purple-backed Spiny Lizard (Sceloporus magister magister)

We got up early the next morning and met him again to look for some lizards:
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Regal Horned Lizard (Phrynosoma solare)
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We went to church and found this tree lizard in front of the church:
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After church we went back to the hotel and checked out and head up to Chandler to visit some friends. Saw this biggun' on the way:
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We left there and drove up through the mountains to the Thatcher area and cruised that night and turned up this atrox:
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We called it a night and headed to bed. We got up in the morning and walked up a couple lizards:
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ID?
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Southwestern Fence Lizard (Sceloporus cowlesi)

We then began our drive back home. We stopped at a picnic area after crossing the state line to change diapers and found this uniparens crawling around:
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We pressed on and stopped at a fish hatchery and saw these:
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American Bullfrog (Lithobates catesbeianus)
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Tree Lizard

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Wandering Garter

We headed out again and I spotted this from the road:
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Fence Lizard

Well, that's it! We thoroughly enjoyed our trip and will definitely make more trips out there! Thanks for looking!

Josh
NACairns
Posts: 372
Joined: December 30th, 2013, 7:27 am

Re: Recent AZ trip with some ID requests

Post by NACairns »

Nice post, you guys saw some cool animals. It's cool to see a cerberus as that is a species that I don't get to see often on here. I think your bird is a female gila woodpecker (Melanerpes uropygialis).
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ThamnElegans24
Posts: 406
Joined: November 23rd, 2010, 6:44 pm
Location: Mesa, Arizona

Re: Recent AZ trip with some ID requests

Post by ThamnElegans24 »

Congratulations on a successful trip! Looks like you had a good time.

I believe the lizard in the 16th photo down is an Elegant Earless Lizard and I have no clue about the bird.
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Southwest wanderer
Posts: 105
Joined: February 25th, 2012, 4:02 pm

Re: Recent AZ trip with some ID requests

Post by Southwest wanderer »

Great trip report!!! I guess you got your questionable stuff answers correctly already. Yes to the Gila Woodpecker, and yes t the Earless lizard.

I love love your AZ Black Rattlesnake pics & the Phrynosoma pics too. We have had marginally decent monsoon activity in much of Southeastern AZ, although some places seem a bit dry yet. Cant wait to see what this El Nino may bring.

Thanks for sharing!
J9
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