Little Western Diamondback rattlesnek. The only critter I found tonight while #BikeHerping and it was two blocks from my house.

Sometimes they do this instead of what I want it to do, which is scurry back to the bushes and get off the road.

Eventually it wrapped itself around the end of the stick, so then I picked it up and carried it out into the bushes in the wild desert parcel across the street.

#Herps #Snake

First sidewinder of the year! Went out #BikeHerping this evening because I needed some exercise after hours of screen-staring. Short ride, maybe 8 miles. This was the only reptile I found. I gently scootched it off the road with my snake stick, only to find it right out in the middle again when I came back.

Look at how well it blends in to the gravel in the wide angle photo. Imagine walking down the roadside in the dark. You'd never see it.
#Snake #Herpetology #Sidewinder #Rattlesnake

Western banded gecko, Coleonyx variegatus, the native gecko here in the southwest. They are so incredibly cute! I went out #BikeHerping and found this little critter and a small rattlesnake (next post). According to Wikipedia there are five sub species, but I don't know anything about them or how to tell them apart. Among other things, they eat baby scorpions.

I have both this species and the introduced Mediterranean house gecko at my place, but this was one of two that I found on the road miles out into the desert.

#Gecko #Herpetology

It's been triple-digits temps here for quite a while, which I don't mind, really. But it does make things like hiking and bike riding and other fun desert activities daunting during the day. I'm going to go "bike herping" — riding my bike on a backroad looking for reptiles. It's how I've learned about all the species that live here. There are only a few I haven't seen yet.

Will post pics of what I find.

#BikeHerping #herps #SonoranDesert

Instead of going #BikeHerping tonight, I went for a 3 mile #herp walk on a road out into the desert. Nice walk, but no reptiles.

Got back to my front yard and saw one of the giant Sonoran toads and this adorable little desert night snake that apparently lives under the house.
Hypsiglena chlorophaea

Is that the coolest offset checkerboard pattern, or what?

Oddly, my two lizard friends are nowhere to be found.

#Snake #Lizard #Herps #Herpetology #SonoranDesert

https://tucsonherpsociety.org/amphibians-reptiles/snakes/desert-nightsnake/

Just for a change of pace this evening before I go to bed, I went out #BikeHerping near here and found this little snake. From photos online, I can't tell exactly what it is. ID anyone? Sonoran Desert, near Ajo, Arizona.

Edit: according to my herpetologist friend it's a Spotted Leaf-nosed snake, Phyllorhynchus decurtatus. The big scale on the snout is the defining characteristic.

#snake #herps #herpetology