Photographing wild Chuckwallas

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While herping the Superstition Mountains in AZwith some friends, we stopped along side Canyon Lake for some scenery photography. While Bill & I are shooting photos, Paul starts climbing the rocks looking for Chuckwallas. It took him lees than 5 minutes to find a pair in the crevices.

 

[snowgyre]

I love it! Any photograph that highlights both the animal and its habitat is a winner in my book. Love the clarity of the shot.

 

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I love it! Any photograph that highlights both the animal and its habitat is a winner in my book. Love the clarity of the shot.

Thanks, and I totally agree! I think this was a definite highlight for me just because we photographed herps in their "true" habitat, not by road cruising at night or flipping boards and scrap metal. Sure, those are fun times too, but this was just really special

 

[WebSlave]

I think that plant in the background is just as cool looking....

 

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Here's another shot of that original Chuck, a shot of it's mate sticking her head out of a rock crevice (breeding pairs rarely stray more than 10 feet from one another) and some shots of the habitat...

 

[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.

 

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Wow, great story!

 

[Helenthereef]

Sorry you have to live in such an ugly part of the country....

Great photos and stunning scenery!

 

[WebSlave]

Yeah, in terrain like that, it really doesn't matter much whether you find any herps or not. Just looking for them would be a treat. One of these days Connie and I really need to take a trip out west.