Night Snake & Other Herps

Whenever weather allows (and even when it doesn't) we spend time outdoors. This outing included a lot of 4-wheeling and also some good nature finds. The snake pictured is a Night Snake and is not so common to find in this valley. We rode over the mountains west of Santequin and found a cool canyon. After crossing a creek and climbing a hill, I stopped to flip some rocks. I am always looking for snakes and herps and my brothers decided to flip a few as well. One of my brothers flipped 5 or 6 rocks before finding the Night Snake (beginner's luck). The snake was photoed and released. I usually don't photo toads, but they are getting pretty hard to find in Utah County. The pics don't show it well, but the Northern Side-blotched Lizards that we caught had a lot of blue specks on their backs. Also, the grasshoppers in one area looked like an explosion of blue when they hopped and flew. I caught some to photo their blue wings. The photo of the bee on the flower was just me practicing photography while catching some of the beauty in the desert.

Mexican Milk Snakes

My birthday came a little early this year. I purchased 2 more snakes at the Wasatch Reptile Expo. I had made my mind up about what kind of snake I wanted to purchase next, but going to a reptile expo and seeing so many cool snakes all together quickly changed all that. Instead of standing at a distance and scowling at me, my wife actually helped pick out the Mexican Milk Snakes. The price made the snakes quite a bargain, which is great because every $10 I spend on snakes allows my wife to spend $1000 on whatever she wants (that is her rule). Milk Snakes (in all their varieties) are about the prettiest snake in the pet trade. Their beautifully contrasting bands of colors, small size, relatively low prices, and calm personalities make them an easy choice. (Important care note: Milk Snakes don't drink milk)

Morphing Racers

When a racer starts out life, it is a completely different looking snake (see top pictures) than when its an adult (other pictures). I misidentified the baby racer when I found it. I thought I had found a Desert Glossy Snake or a Night Snake. It took eyes more expert than mine to identify the snake. I am not a complete walking field guide like a select few are (I hate to admit that). After about a year, the racer's cool pattern gives way to a solid green or an almost turquoise color. I haven't ever kept racers for very long, so I have not ever been able to observe the transformation from a pattern to a solid color. I am not sure if this occurs in one shed or over a period of time. I could probably do some quick research to find out this, but I guess I don't need to know it. The adult Yellow-Bellied "Mormon" Racer pictured was one of the best looking racers that I have ever come across. Its pretty green scales were flawless and its belly was banana yellow. Wild racers are typically "beat up" from their normal wear and tear activities. On the list of snakes that I would not collect from the wild, racers are at the top. They cannot race in a terrarium and deserve to be free.

The Ultimate Color Morph

My wife and I recently restored our 1968 Camaro's interior (new seat foam, seat covers, OEM carpet, everything). The last day we worked on it all afternoon/evening and didn't stop until 4:00 in the morning. The reason we worked straight through is because for things like this my motivation comes and goes, and when it goes, its gone. The new parts to restore the interior had sat in the garage for the last 2 years in boxes. This car is an obvious piece of muscle car history and is in incredible shape. The car is also a piece of family history. It is the car that my wife rode to elementary school in. Her dad bought the car back in the '70's when it was only about 5 years old. My first car was a 1968 Camaro similar to this one, purchased w/my own earnings when I had just turned 15. There are a lot of 1st generation Camaro stories in the family and I have personally owned 4 of them (all 1968's), but I will try to bring this post back to the world of herps. I couldn't help noticing how well my Mexican Black Kingsnake matches the paint color of this family keepsake. I will say this: if a snake breeder can come up with a color morph combination of black, berry red, and chrome....that breeder will be able to name his price to me (any price).

Note: the kingsnake charges $5,000 per photo shoot

Robby (field herper from the old school)

Garters

My brother brought me some Garter Snakes the other day. He was mowing his lawn and was humane enough to collect them so they didn't get chopped up. I relocated them, but they have probably been devoured by predators by now.

Labor Day Herping: Mostly Lizards

We took a Labor Day weekend trip to Central Utah to ride 4-wheelers and enjoy the outdoors with a lot of our extended family (mostly mine). With an approaching storm, decent temps, and a lot of time to spend looking for snakes, I thought this trip would get me some really great pictures of a lot of snakes. The first day I was only able to catch some Common Tree Lizards and a Western Fence Lizard (note: the Fence Lizard on its back is not dead or injured. Turning a lizard onto its back and rubbing its belly puts them to sleep immediately. This was done to photo the blue belly markings. Just seconds after snapping this photo the lizard took off quicker than lightning and couldn't be found). The only snake seen this day was seen by my mother-in-law and was likely a Gopher Snake from the description and location. I went to the area where it was seen and looked for a while without finding anything. There were so many rodent holes around. I'm sure it disappeared down one of them. That night I talked my father-in-law into driving the roads with me to look for snakes. We drove the roads for hours and saw only mice and rabbits. He probably thinks I'm crazy. It would have been cool to find at least one snake to let him experience the joys of field herping. Oh, well. The only snake I found on this trip was found near the lake when I was flipping logs and rocks. It was a Wandering Garter Snake and its color was very different from the ones that I find up here. It was piebald and there was very little yellow in it. Piebald (random blotches of white) is a strange thing to me. Some snakes in the pet trade (Ball Pythons especially) are highly valued for their piebald characteristic. For myself, I consider piebald a flaw and would never purchase one. I would sooner purchase expensive art with BBQ or Ketchup stains on it.

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p.s in the last photo, I had climbed up to get a picture of two owls and found a petroglyph and an ancient dwelling

Another One of Steven's Snakes

My brother sent pictures of what the hurricane recently did to their property in S. Georgia and after the storm his son found another cool snake, this time a pretty Ringneck Snake. I have said this before: storms bring out some of the coolest snakes. Stephen: Ringnecks don't drink V8 juice.

Snake Killers

After visiting my brother's house in Santaquin, I decided to drive a canyon on the way back in hopes of finding a cool snake. This canyon normally has little or no traffic, but I forgot that the bow hunt had just started, so there were a lot of vehicles going in both directions. A lot of these "hunters" are a danger to themselves and everything within their range, so I thought it was best to stay in the car for the most part (I'm not into body piercing). The only snake I would find this night was a recently run-over Yellow Bellied Racer. The person who ran the snake over probably did it intentionally. The bright green is hard to miss and these snakes are almost always moving and the canyon road doesn't allow fast speeds in the area where the snake was killed. Anyone who thinks that they have done the world a favor by running over a snake is an uneducated idiot (that includes people that otherwise seem very intelligent). If it was possible to ask the millions that died in Europe of the plague whether they would have wanted snakes to control their rodent population, I'm sure the answer would be an emphatic "yes". Snakes are very important to the environment. It always disgusts me to see a snake killed on the road, but I guess its less traumatic than finding a person killed on the road. I will have to pick another canyon for my next snake hunt, but right now I can't think of one that won't be full of hunter traffic.

Stephen's Snakes

My nephew has started doing some herping on his own in south Georgia. He found a nice looking Banded Water Snake. Finding a lot of cool snakes is a lot easier down in the SE. The last time I visited my older brother down there, I woke up to someone yelling "snake". That was music to my ears. There was a snake that was trying to come into the house (I wish I had that problem). The snake had already made its way past a screen door and would try to come into the house whenever the inside door was opened. It didn't seem to fear people much. That morning I walked around their property for about 2 hours and found 2 Gray Rat Snakes, a large Black Racer (the Racer lived in their barn and they saw it frequently), and some water snakes. Florida and Georgia just have so many species of snakes. My nephew found a Garter Snake when he came out here. He has a lot to learn about keeping snakes. They don't like potato chips or Dr.Pepper.