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| no partners | | Host: gummo (minus one)
Travel partner: canceled last minute
Goal: to find as many snakes as possible and add water to a small spring that I discovered last trip.
Mood: Hopeful
Weather: Near perfect
Barriers: Road construction, cold front, camera issues
Wildlife seen: sidewinders, sun spiders, various lizards, a patch-nosed snake (no pic), a gopher snake, a shovel-nosed snake, scorpions, the smallest praying mantis ever (about the size of a grain of rice) and spiders of all kinds.
Highlights: 2 sidewinders resting together (possibly were mating or about to mate, but they weren't copulating when I saw them), BIG fun gopher snake with a lot of character, a brightly colored desert spiny swift ready to mate, & a sun spider with eggs.
Song: Gamma 693 by Rupture (https://www.youtube.com/embed/LYa7JEPOZ1E) 
Audiobook: And The Hippos Were Boiled In Their Tanks by Jack Kerouac & William S. Burroughs
Influences: Marty Stouffer, Steve Irwin, & Andrew Ucles (http://andrewucles.com)
Random Fact About Me: I was able to rid my apartment of bed bugs without an exterminator.
Observation: When I go to Joshua Tree, I know I'm going to find the same stuff most every time, but occasionally, I'll find something new. I was able to find my first gopher snake in Joshua Tree (not counting the injured one from a previous trip). It hissed a little, shook its tail, but did not bite and quickly mellowed out. I should add that I never pick up snakes by the head. It seem cruel to me. I always give snakes a chance to bite me if they want, and I don't get bit too often.
The next oddity encounter was a sun spider with eggs. I've seen so many sun spiders now that I stopped photographing them, but this one was an exception. All the sun spiders looked well-fed and health, while most other spiders were thin. The scorpions looked healthy too.
Another observation is that they are more large sidewinders this year and are in abundance. I tried to make a sidewinder sandwich using a hamburger bun + cheese (somehow, I thought this would be funnier with the cheese), but the sidewinders were dwarfing the bottom half of the bun and it looked ridiculous, so I came back with more sizable slices of bread and ate all the cheese in the process.
The other task that I had was to add a few gallons of water to a small spring to attract wildlife. I used water that I collected from the shower while waiting for the shower water to heat up. When I got to the spring, a found that it was infested with about a hundred bees. I trekked too far to be deterred, so I emptied the water into the spring and stirred up the bees in the process. Later, on the way back, I discovered 2 other springs without any bees.  Bees flew in and around my face when I filled the spring. Bees landed in my hair and on my skin and clothes, but did not sting me. I think they were more interested in obtaining the salt from my sweat than getting revenge for disturbing them. Nonetheless, it's all in a day's work.
End notes: Road construction in the park limited my access to some of my favorite herping spots and killed any chance of success road cruising at night for snakes. Road construction will continue until July 1st. |
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