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| no partners | | I took a break from the mundane to look for baby sidewinders at Joshua Tree Nat'l Park. They are born at the end of summer, and I wanted to come greet them into the world, whether they want me to or not.
It took me 5 hours to get there, because I took the back roads there to look for snakes along the way. First snake that I saw was a sidewinder - not a baby sidewinder, but cool to see nonetheless. Second snake I saw was a mojave rattlesnake. After driving a bit more and seeing a few dead sidewinders on the road, I finally saw my target species - a baby sidewinder (photo#3). Cute fellow, but very quick and agile and not esy to photograph. Not only did I have to deal with trying to calm the snake down enough for me to photograph it, but I had to deal with oncoming traffic. After about 3 minutes chasing it and dodging traffic, I was able to get my photo and be on my way.
I started my search for sidewinders before sunrise, thinking that it'll be a typical hot summer day. It wasn't. Temps were pretty mild at Joshua Tree. I found an empty cup and thought, "Maybe I can catch a baby sidewinder in a cup, so it would be easier to photograph." I wish I thought of that one last night.
I hiked for an hour or two, I found a baby diamondback hissing and shaking its tail. It couldn't produce any sound from its button of a rattle, but it was cute seeing it trying. California diamondbacks don't back down from anyone. I decied to catch it in the cup and moved it to the more desireable area.
Moments later, I found a kangaroo rat. I managed to catch it with the cup I found. This 22oz cup is coming in handy so far. Unfortunately, when I tried to handle it, I couldn't get a good grip and it got away from me. Later, I caught a coachwhip snake and saw another diamondback to end that part of my trip.
I decided to hit Amboy Road in TwentyNine Palms and search for a abandon house to explore, thinking that newborn sidewinders might be housed inside, possibly with some other critters. There are a plethora of abandon houses in TwentyNine Palms for some strange reason. I never explored them, so I figured that I'd try something different. I choose one abandoned home that looked like it had potential. It was trashed and would take a lot of work to sift thru. I saw mouse scat, coyote scat, owl pellets, but no signs of snakes. But I went around the back and found a sweet speckled rattlesnake (possibly a panamint subspecies).
After that, my camera died on me. There was too much sand and dust inside. It's under warranty, but I decided to buy a new backup camera at Walmart. This new camera is okay, but I'm not good with technology, and I botched a lot of pics with it at first. I figured out the basics and went from there.
I stopped by at Big Morongo Canyon Preserve. I heard a lot of good things about this area, like it is the 2nd most density populated bird nesting areas in the US. The birds were pretty much gone, as birding season is in the winter and spring. It was small but had potential to be a cool area to explore. I returned to the park and found another sidewinder in Joshua Tree, the only sidewinder in CA. I was tired from waking up at 5am and needed to get an early start tomorrow.
After herping Thursday morning, I headed back home. On the way home, I stopped outside Quartzsite to do a little herping and found 2 speckled rattlesnakes together and two blacktailed rattlesnakes. I didn't upload the blacktail photos, because the photoset is for Joshua Tree NP and blacktails are not found in Joshua Tree.
Overall, I had a good trip. I went by fast. I saw a lot of reptiles, but I was expecting to see more sidewinders. I saw more snakes in AZ than in CA. Here's the list of wildlife seen:
3 sidewinders
3 diamondbacks
3 speckled rattlesnakes
2 blacktails
1 mojave
1 coachwhip
5 desert iguanas
1 black domestic cat South of Joshua Tree NP (  )
1 coyote
1 black widow
1 baby sun spider
1 Woodhouse's toad |
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