Year is off to a good start.

Dedicated exclusively to field herping.

Moderator: Scott Waters

Post Reply
simpleyork
Posts: 513
Joined: March 6th, 2012, 12:45 pm
Location: utah

Year is off to a good start.

Post by simpleyork »

ImageImageTook my oldest out to go rock flipping for his Bday.
Image
Spent the past few days knocking some herps off my lifers list.
Thanks to all who were involved(YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE)
Day 1: My friend and I sped down south to do some daytime herping.
We spent time flipping in a few new areas. One location produced 6 blackheaded snakes(Lifers)
while another produced 3 western thread snakes another Lifer.
many ground snakes, uta, desert geckos, coachwhip, and desert night lizards were found.
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image

That night we tried cruising but only came out with a DOR Mojave.
Day2: The next morning we headed to a new location and found whip tails, zebra tails, leopard lizards, more uta, and redspotted toads.
The most interesting story for that hot day was a spooked up a zebra tail who ran 50 feet or so to a bush, I walked over there and again he took off for about the same distance. I headed that way and soon saw him dart out of a bush run 2 feet and the suddenly flip upsidedown and died.
Image
Image
Image
Image

my main goal was to find a leaf nosed snake
that night we started to cruise, the first finds were two female Uta as I was moving the second off the road I looked up and saw a tiny snake five feet away, it was my Lifer leafnose. that night we found plenty of desert banded geckos, two sidewinders, and when stopping for a speckled we noticed another speckle coming on to the road. Oh and we founf a stick insect as well that night before we called it good.
Image
Image

the double specks
Image
Image

Day3: We started the day moving to a new camping location, within a few minutes we had found our first of many desert iguanas(or as my 4 year old says Iguanga)
There also was a coachwhip seen cruising our campsite for food.
Image
Image
that night we met up with some fellow herpers and cruised 2 sidewinders, a night snake, a longnosed, and another leafnose.
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
We also found some roughscaled geckos.
Image
on the way back to camp we found 2 dor longnosed, and a dor patchnose.

Day4: On day four we spent time just hiking around, we found Chuckwalla and zebra tailed lizards
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image

that night we cruised six more sidewinders, a plethora of geckos and a gophersnake.
Image

this leafnose was found by some fellow herpers that night
Image

we also did some night hiking and found a few more things like this desert hairy
Image

that night after cruising we headed home.

list of herps seen

Toads:

Woodhouse
Redspotted

Lizards:

Sideblotched
Desert Spiny
Desert Night Lizard
Desert Banded gecko
Rough tailed bowfoot gecko
Desert Iguana
Chuckwalla
Leopard Lizard
Tiger Whiptail
Zebra Tailed Lizard
Desert Horned Lizard

Snakes:

Black headed
Variable Ground Snake
Western Thread
Coach Whip
Leafnose
Patchnose
LongNose
Night snake
Mojave Rattler
SideWinder
Speckled Rattler
Jimi
Posts: 1955
Joined: December 3rd, 2010, 12:06 pm

Re: My Spring Trip

Post by Jimi »

Nice trip! Hope to see all those records in HERP some day!

Congrats on the lifers, especially your white whale leaf nose. (Now you'll probably see them all the time.) Aren't the little ones amusing little bluffers? Vicious I say, just vicious.

cheers
simpleyork
Posts: 513
Joined: March 6th, 2012, 12:45 pm
Location: utah

Re: My Spring Trip

Post by simpleyork »

Started working on records, got the blind snakes vouchered already.

Yah it was awesome the first snake we saw down in that area was a leafnose, then seeing two more after that was icing on the cake.
User avatar
Jeremy Westerman
Posts: 634
Joined: October 12th, 2010, 11:05 am
Location: Utah
Contact:

Re: My Spring Trip

Post by Jeremy Westerman »

Fantastic expedition results. The blind snakes are a major find for Utah although they are not uncommon by many reports they are exceedingly difficult to find for me (or practically anyone for that matter) no matter how much time I have spent. Score with your lifer Blackheads! The spotted leaf nose is a target of mine it looks like I will have to head much farther south to get my lifer leafnose and lyre like you did. Do you have all of the mojave reptile species that can be found in Utah now? It seems like you might.
I still need these mojave (Utah) reptile lifers
Utah Threadsnake (Leptotyphlops humilis utahensis)
Spotted Leaf-nosed Snake (Phyllorhynchus decurtatus)
Sonoran Lyresnake (Trimorphodon biscutatus lambda)
Western Long-tailed Brush Lizard (Urosaurus graciosus graciosus)
and these mojave (Utah) amphibian lifers
Lowland Leopard Frog (Lithobates yavapaiensis) likely extirpated from Utah
Relict Leopard Frog (Lithobates onca) extirpated from Utah last seen in the early 1950's in the state

I'm off the the other Southern corner of the state to round up the few lifers I still need in the Four Corners area.
simpleyork
Posts: 513
Joined: March 6th, 2012, 12:45 pm
Location: utah

Re: My Spring Trip

Post by simpleyork »

I still need a live patchnose, and a cali king for the reptiles.
hondo-dan
Posts: 22
Joined: August 25th, 2014, 8:00 pm

Re: My Spring Trip

Post by hondo-dan »

Nice finds Chris!
simpleyork
Posts: 513
Joined: March 6th, 2012, 12:45 pm
Location: utah

Re: My Spring Trip

Post by simpleyork »

Thanks,
s_stocking
Posts: 79
Joined: October 11th, 2012, 7:37 pm
Location: Las Vegas, Nv

Re: Year is off to a good start.

Post by s_stocking »

Hey Chris- were the blackheaded snakes in UT or NV?
simpleyork
Posts: 513
Joined: March 6th, 2012, 12:45 pm
Location: utah

Re: Year is off to a good start.

Post by simpleyork »

utah
Post Reply