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Arizona Trip (part 2)
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Posted by KeithB (My Page) on Wed, Aug 17, 05 at 9:38
| 8/2- The monsoon rains brought the first good night of snake movement. Around 7:30 PM I found my 1st snake of the trip--a large and very pugnacious Western Diamondback that rattled incessantly when I approached it and pulled itself into an S coil and kept rattling even as I stood several feet away. This was one of the most aggressive rattlesnakes I had ever come across. Around 8:30 I found a nother adult Diamondback on the paved road between Portal, AZ and Rodeo, NM. This one never rattled and just cruised slowly away. My third and final snake of the evening was a juvenile. I wasn't sure if it was a diamondback or mojave, but recorded it as a diamondback until I had the photo developed. A review of the photo shows it was my lifelist Mojave.
8/3- I took a morning hike around Portal (no major wildlife) and then took my girlfriend's son en route to the Grand Canyon.
8/4- Saw the majestic Grand Canyon and lo and behold a rare lifelist bird flew overhead as we were enjoying spectacular vies from the South Rim. It turns out a giant California Condor (introduced as part of a recovery program) was also checking out the Canyon from above. A nice find to be sure.
South of Flagstaff we saw a herd of elk from the Interstate. I traveled back towards SE Arizona and negotiated some heavy thunderstorms in the central Arizona mountains before calling it a night amidts flooded streets in Globe Arizona.
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Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Arizona Trip (part 2)
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| 8/2--During the day found some Slevin's Bunchgrass Lizards, Yarrow's Spiny Lizards and a Desert-Grassland Whiptail. Like Keith I had a good night on the roads. I found a gorgeous and very large green Mojave Rattlesnake (3 feet plus with 10 buttons on the rattle) at 7:45PM. I was thrilled as it was my first live Mojave in the wild. Twenty minutes later I found a 15-16 inch subadult Mojave rattlesnake. Toads were also in force and I saw many great plains toads and a couple of spadefoot toads. 8/3--no interesting herps today. Saw an Arizona Woodpecker and a Sulfur-Bellied Flycatcher for a couple of lifelist birds. 8/4--hiked to the top of a mountain with my wife and dad in the Portal area and nearly slid off a steep point where the trail was partially eroded. My mom had turned back because of the hazardous trail quality in some places. Saw lots of lizards and had fun seeing the species change as we gained in elevation. Start of the trail was dominated by whiptails, then Striped Plateau Lizards and a Clark's Spiny Lizard and finally Mountain (Yarrow's) Spiny Lizards. Saw an enormous 55 inch snake skin at lower elevation on the way back. I imagine it belonged to a Western Diamondback by size alone. If it is a Blacktail Rattlesnake it is a remarkable specimen. My mom saw a Green Rat Snake down at lower elevation. Wish I'd been there for that instead of going on the mountain ledge balancing tour. The night road cruise that night was disappointing and only produced two DOR snakes. A Western Diamondback and a juvenile Mojave. |
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