FaunaClassifieds - View Single Post - Photographing wild Chuckwallas
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Old 01-12-2014, 01:53 PM   #6
WebSlave
Many years ago I was out in California for training for my job and some guys invited me to go camping out in the desert over one of the weekends. Wish I could remember where that was located, because it was a really interesting place. But I wasn't too crazy about sleeping in that little rental car I had.

Anyway, in a wash near to the campgrounds, I spotted a chuck up in the rocks so went climbing after him with my camera in hand. He was shy and trying to get a good angle for close photos was proving to be a challenge. I was walking along a narrow ledge trying to get a shot, with nothing but air to the right of me, and to the left a chest high wall of rock with a narrow crack running horizontally about knee height. The chuck was skittering all over that rock face, seemingly drawing me along that ledge. Some sixth sense alerted me, and I backed up a bit and then stooped down to peer into that crack. That put me face to face with a rattlesnake holed up in that crack less than a foot from my nose. I still don't know how I avoided jumping back involuntarily and landed in a crumpled heap of broken bones in the rocks below. But I backed away and had to be satisfied with the photos I had already gotten of that chuck trying to lead me to my doom.

So be careful poking around in those crevasses.