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CALIFORNIA & ARIZONA
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March 2001
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Click on any
photo to see a larger version
 2 of 5 
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Relocating to another industrial park we
continued to hunt for rattlers. Got to
the first board and Brendan flips — then flips out — while Brian whoops and
shouts, “Aberrant!!”
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California Kingsnake
Aberrant
phase
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Seems the two buddies had been hoping for
some time to find one of these rare variations. Ron and I just took pleasure watching them
get giddy, something only fellow herpers would understand. Hey, at least it keeps us safely off the
streets. Now, back to the rattlers . .
. .
Brian said this time we’d be moving down the
hillside into the valley where the weeds were higher, preferred habitat for
the Southern Pacific Rattlesnake. He
knew a board line that was sure to produce results, and true to his word we
didn’t even have to flip to find one — the first piece of cover we came
to had a Southern Pacific Rattlesnake basking by its side. The next four or five boards all had
Rattlesnakes under them, sometimes more than one.
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Southern
Pacific Rattlesnake
Crotalus viridis helleri
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The whole experience was kind of strange for
us. Ron and I are accustomed to
thinking of Rattlesnakes as rarities, a target that requires hard search and
long travel. Even Kingsnakes are not
all that common where we come from, something you find every once in a while
if you go out far enough into the country.
Yet here we were surrounded by offices, golf courses and houses, and
finding both species as backyard herps. Now I understood all those people who
dreamed of a better life in California.
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California Kingsnake
Found
in a vacant lot off a busy residential street.
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The
next stop was closer to the kind of herping I had been expecting. Drove further north to a rural stretch
where pink granite boulders dominated the landscape. We climbed and wandered in search of Rosy
Boas and Red Diamond Rattlesnakes hiding under the speckled rocks. Once again Brian’s son found our first
snake, a lovely Rosy with flecking inspired by the surrounding granite, and
Brian himself uncovered a Red rattler (unfortunately the picture didn’t come
out) and a cute little rear-fanged (but harmless) Night Snake just as it got
too dark to continue.
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Rosy
Boa
Lichanura trivirgata
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Night
Snake
Hypsiglena torquata
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In
the morning we explored another steep hillside covered in granite and turned
up two delicate lizards from beneath the rough rocks. The Coleonyx
genus is somewhat unusual among Geckos because they possess moveable eyelids
which many other species don’t, however, they also lack the velcro-like
toepads common to most other Geckos. Don’t know if the Granite Night Lizard is unusual, but I was enchanted by the way
its pattern blended with the rocks.
The weather was pretty cool and we didn’t find anything else, so we
headed east towards the desert in hopes that warmer temps would bring us
better luck.
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Western
Banded Gecko
Coleonyx variegatus
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Granite
Night Lizard
Xanatusia henshawi
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Whitewater Canyon
In the transition zone from coastal
mountains to desert
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