They Hatched!!!!

They hatched last night! Two are still just poking their heads out, but all are well!

A recent rescue

Thursday at about 10:00 pm I got a call from one of our salesman saying there was a snake in the warehouse in a box and that it was getting out. I asked him what kind of snake and he had no idea. I asked him what it looked like and he said it was tan. I told him to put something on top of the box and that I would be right there. We went down to the warehouse and found the snake attached to a glue trap. There was also a checkered whiptail attached that was already dead. Vegetable oil neutralizes the glue, so I took it home and started working to get the snake unglued. It came pretty easy, the hardest part was dealing with the angry coachwhip! Here are some pictures of the process:


































Josh

I love Spadefoots!!!!!

I was watching the weather and saw that it was raining south of town, so I discussed it with my wife and we decided to go for a cruise. We went to dinner first and then I got a call from Bill (bgorum). He told me he was going south and wanted to know if we wanted to come with. He came and picked us up and we commenced our cruise. We got into our target area and started seeing these on the road:

Couch's Spadefoot

juvie Woodhouse Toad

another couch's

We could hear a chorus of spadefoots and tried to locate them. It was not hard, but it ended up being on private property. We drove a little further and found another and found a road that went right next to it. We found this going on:


Bill decided to get a closer look:

So did I:














We could hear another species in the midst of the sheep-calling. Bill located it:

New Mexico Spadefoot









showing off his spades

We thought we heard yet another species and started to look for it, we never did but we did spot these, can you see them:

Here they are closer:


We continued our search and found no other ponds but there were several out on the roads. Here is what we looked like afterwards:

We moved on to see if we could locate some snakes. We found a DOR gopher snake, a DOR prairie rattlesnake and this little gem:

Desert Kingsnake (lifer!)


I just added this video to youtube of a New Mexico Spadefoot calling with the chorus of Couch's Spadefoots in the background.



Thanks for looking!
Josh

The last month or so...

In early June I took a trip down to Carlsbad with a few people from the forum. It was a good trip, not too many herps, but still a good trip. Here is what we found down there:

Tarantula - we saw a few of these


Texas Toad (lifer!) - was a little surprised to see this out - dry as a bone hitting over 100 during the day.

The next day we met up with everyone and hit up a spot ErikNM knew about for ribbon snakes:

Rio Grande River Cooter (lifer!)


cropped, but still difficult to see


Red-ear slider

Went hiking later that day after sleeping in the air conditioned motel and swimming in their pool.

Chihuahuan Spotted Whiptail

Vermillion Flycathcher (lifer!)


Rio Grande Leopard Frog tadpole (lifer!)


Goldfinch


Fence Lizard



Desert Mule Deer

We went road cruising that night and ran into Bgorum and he had these:

Texas Banded Gecko


Ground Snake

The next day we drove home and we stopped in Roswell to check out the local zoo since it was free.



White-winged Dove


Texas Tortoise


Sulcutta




Red-ears and another, any guesses on the other?

I come across herps frequently while I'm working. (I do pest control). Usually it is just fence lizards, but every once in a while I come across these:

Sonoran Gopher Snake


On my wife's birthday, we went and hiked around some ponds and found these:

Chihuahuan Spotted Whiptail looking for lunch


Texas Spiny Softshell


Woodhouse Toad metamorph - there were several of these hopping around


Red-ear


Tadpoles - any idea on the ID? I'm thinking woodhouse toad due to the metamorphs


Desert Grassland Whiptail


Chihuahuan Spotted Whiptail with her lunch





Painted Turtle


American Bullfrog

For my birthday I wanted to go camping and find some critters not found in the region I live in. Unfortunately we did not have much time for camping, but I decided to try camping in the Magdalenas. I'd never been there and it is also the furthest north of the range of banded rock rattlesnakes. We went and spied out a ridge that looked promising and went to herping:

The chollas were in bloom!


gravid Chihuahuan Spotted Whiptail




Tree Lizards - although, I have only found them on rocks





Blacktail shed


Crevice Spiny Lizard - one of my favorite lizards!


Another tree

"What are you looking at?"


Another crevice


another shed skin - fresh blacktail

No snakes, so we went roadcruising later that night and found these:

Prairie Rattlesnake



Painted Desert Glossy Snake - the biggest one I've found! probably around 4 foot!



Me and my birthday snake!


We found a few things road cruising as well:

Sonoran Gopher Snake



Couch's Spadefoot


Great Plains Toad


another Glossy

We help do surveys on the Sandia reservation north of Albuquerque and here are some of the things we have seen this year:

New Mexico Whiptail

Gravid Collared Lizard





Huge male Collared Lizard





Ground squirrel


Side-blotched


Collared


Roundtail Horned Lizard


Male Side-blotched


Great Plains Skink



Hatchling Side-blotched

Last weekend we went for a road trip to Sierra County with Bgorum. See his post here: [url]http://www.fieldherpforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1003[/url] We found this guy on the way down:

Texas Horned Lizard






We spotted this storm on the way down and got excited:



Juvie Great Plains Skink

We found a creek bed and found some pools with these in them:

Plains Leopard Frog tadpole

adult


We found this on the way out of the canyon:

Desert Box Turtle


Millipede

We started to cruise when it got dark:

Vinegaroon


Sonoran Gopher Snake



Texas Night Snake

We ran into a herper named Keith and he was kind enough to let us photograph this:

Chihuahuan Lyre Snake

Couch's Spadefoot



another night

Well, that catches me up to date!

Josh