CA301p1

CALIFORNIA & ARIZONA

March 2001

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COASTAL CALIFORNIA

In May of 1999 and 2000 I had taken some short herping trips in North Carolina with my brother Ron. Had a great time and we made some wonderful finds, but in 2001 we wanted something more. The uninitiated may not understand, but somehow we had the need to be where Rattlesnakes were certain to be found. So we headed west.

Peak season in California would have been April thru June, but March was the only time we could both make it. The weather was still kinda cool so we didn’t expect to see too much. Fortunately, we hedged our bets by arranging to connect with some California contacts we had been corresponding with prior to the trip. And, besides, we had never been herping out west, so everything would be new to us, no matter how little we found. We were excited!

Met up with Brian and Brendan near San Diego for our first day in the field. Despite the chilly temps Brian promised we’d see Rattlesnakes that day, so I expected a long trip to some remote area where such snakes could still be found in the wild. After all, back east we have to travel deep into some national park or rural outback to have any hope of finding these increasingly uncommon serpents. Well, we headed out from the parking lot of a fast food restaurant in a busy, overdeveloped suburb and 15 minutes later we did pull into a park --- an industrial park. Ah, wilderness.

Behind the warehouses were grassy slopes where it was too steep to build, and on the ground were strewn boards placed by herpers hoping to lure snakes in search of cover. We strung out across the hill like soldiers armed with snake hooks and began to check out the board line.

First honors went to Brian’s son who turned a piece of plywood and found a young striped California Kingsnake. A few flips later and we were looking at a different version of the same species. The pattern on these snakes can be quite variable, with most falling into the broad categories of Striped or Banded. Occasionally some specimens display an irregular or broken pattern known as Aberrant.

Striped phase

Banded phase

California Kingsnake

Lampropeltis getulus californiae

Other boards turned up other finds, such as Ringneck Snakes, Skinks, and Fence Lizards. These were all somewhat familiar to us because we’ve frequently found their eastern cousins, yet it was still interesting to see the geographic differences. For example, the back of the Western Fence Lizard looks quite similar to the Fence Lizard of the eastern states, Sceloporus undulatus, but the blue throat and belly patches of the males are much more pronounced in S. occidentalis. Alligator Lizards, on the other hand, have no counterpart back home, so we were kind of thrilled when practically every flip sent one of the big brown guys scurrying through the weeds. Seeing these strangers gave us the first real sensation that we were in foreign territory (if you don’t count our earlier discovery of Carl’s Jr., a western species of fast food restaurant).