Evening Finds 3

9/12/2010

As we are walking to and nearing the water hole that we like to shoot near for another evening of dove hunting, I noticed something, which I thought to be a Spiny Lizard, poking its head out of a nearby hole under a Creosote bush. I walked closer and saw it was a snake head! Most likely a rattlesnake from the looks of it. I found a stick and nudged him out, which is when he started rattling a little, but he came out and curled up at the base of the bush. From there we took pictures like the following. A beautiful pose in defensive position with its tongue out. We decided that this was a Mojave Rattlesnake. Due to its greenish coloration, smaller black stripes on its tail, eye stripes following the jaw-line, and the single palette. We let him be as we went along our way only to find other hunters at the water hole so we headed back to our next favorite spot. Upon doing so we looked back for the snake and it was gone. So we carefully looked in the surrounding bushes and finally heard it rattling as it was going down into a nearby pack-rat's nest, where we left it and started hunting. 

After finishing our hunting we broke out the UV flashlight that I had just bought to look for scorpions along with our normal flashlights for snakes and such. We quickly came across 3 or more very young scorpions of which species I'm not sure. But then after circling one creosote bush we saw what were were hoping to find--a Desert Hairy Scorpion. We wanted to catch one and keep it as a pet. The bigger scorpions just seem cooler! The following are a picture of it normal and then under the black light. Now tell me that isn't cool!

After seeing many more scorpions, including two more large hairy scorpions, we made it back to our car and headed home. On the same road that we previously saw the javelina and adult rattlesnake, we came across a baby rattler. Slightly smaller than the mojave found earlier, this was a Western Diamond-backed Rattler getting ready to cross the road. So we brought our BB gun out...and helped it off the road. Here he is in strike position after being startled by my brother's quick movement. Then just after that we saw a toad on the road. We shoed it along across the road and then I consulted with my handy guide book and saw it was a Woodhouse's Toad. 

P.S. 

    Pheww! All caught up with my adventures!! :)