Another Beautiful Feb. 2009 Day

Spring has been pretty kind as of late here in So Cal and my favorite herp has been showing its face for a group of us again. We have been having a lot of rain recently so finding a day off without rain has been hard. Well on our second day of pretty decent weather and temps we headed back out. I told a couple of our group were I had last seen a couple crotes and sure enough the female was out basking this time.
The first find of the day was a nice Red Diamond Rattler-Crotalus ruber ruber (In Situ)



Within a few minutes while some were still taking pics of the rubber my buddy yells ROSY…We all run over to take a look..


Nothing like Camaraderie with friends


And a few pics I took of his find.
Which END is her head? She had a LARGE stubbed tail..



This camaraderie tends to pick everyone’s pace right up.. Turning into a fun challenge..
My first and ONLY snake I found during the day was a nice little neonate Cal King




Next a couple of guys found a small mine shaft that dropped down a few feet. One of the guys noticed a little horned lizard covered in moss at the bottom. Probably was there for a while..Once he warmed up for a few minutes he glanced over at the group, turned back away and ran like heck..Sorry the pic was too bright so I tried to save it a bit so you could KIND OF see the horned lizard..


Another lizard found by one of the group.. a nice big Alligator lizard (1 of the 3 found)


Then out call by bud..ROSY.. and I say DAMN.. Now I am really jealous. He was on another hill so I did not get a pick of it. This time he said it was a nice sub-adult male..I also heard a couple of the guys that broke off a little bit later had found another rubber, a gophersnake, and what they said were two helleri’s . Again I did not get any pics..So all in all a great day even though I DID NOT find my target.. But it is BETTER to be in the field than sitting at home watching it on discovery channel..

Very nice but I must ask. Pic # 2 looks like you are around a half mile up the hill from the little Tonka toy at the bottom? We hunt the flats here in Oklahoma and Texas. We still have a couple months here before much starts moving but we have nothing as exciting as you guys have. I have never been to so cal but someday would love to head west and see the wild rosies, cals. Alligator lizards, and other cool stuff. Great finds and keep the pics a rolling.

We were not that high up the hill at all. I would say it is the way the camera takes the pic. We are up on some pretty steep hills though probably anywhere from 200-300 yrds up from the car. I have never been to the midwest or backeast so I know what you mean. I might be heading out to Georgia this summer. So we will see how that goes. Thanks for th comments..Rich