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| no partners | | Name: gummo
Date: 4/21//16 to 4/25/16
Mission: to find snakes and to get more dates.
Snakes (2016): 63
Dates (2016): 5 (see how that works?)
Song: Gotta Win The Lottery by Califlower featuring Bob Dylan and Louis Armstrong (https://youtube.com ... 4MiQ)
Temps: varied from mid 70s to low 90s.
Trip Highlights: 1) Chuckwalla invasion, 2) A sweet shovel-nosed snake, 3) Saw Widowmaker's favorite rock and was careful not to touch it, 4) Saw a few Wilson Warblers (new species for me), 5) Hiked a sweet speckled rattler.
Fauna sightings (2016):
- Gophersnakes: 12
- Sidewinders: 14
- Dbacks: 13
- Coachwhips:9
- Night Snakes: 5
- Spotted Leafnosed: 3
- Lyresnakes: 1
- Checkered garters: 2
- Patchnosed: 1
- Long-nosed: 1 (4/25/16)
- Shovel-nosed: 1
- Speckled Rattler: 1
- Tortoises: 2
- Gila Monsters: 1
- Coyotes: 5
New Species (2016): 20
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I took some time off work to go to Joshua Tree NP to go on my hunt. Hunting sidewinders was on my things-to-do-list this trip, and I did find some and other fun stuff to photograph. HAZ is a great site, but one of the biggest complains that I hear about HAZ is that there's not enough sidewinder photos on it, and I agree. So to help out hikearizona, I voluntarily took some time to look for sidewinders to photograph and post on HAZ.
Joshua Tree was free to enter this week, but it was not crowded at all. I first went to the north end and tooled around and acted like a typical tourist. I then went to the south end to scout around for reptiles and found a few. Few flowers were out because the chuckwallas probably ate most of them.
The next day was pretty much the same as the last day, but I didn't go up north. I saw a lot more bird this day. I saw Jim_H was in the area, so I called him. I didn't answer. Oh well. I hiked a sweet speckled rattler and soon after almost tripped over a desert tortoise. The chuckwallas, though, were off the hook. One darted in front of me and started posing away, as if he wanted to be on America's Next Top Model. The other chuckwalla did the same thing but was more interested in eating and licking a plant. He came so close to me, I had to back up. This entertained some of the other hikers. I think if I stood still, it might've crawled on me.
After that, I was kind of done with Joshua Tree for now and cruise over to AZ to camp and look for more snakes. I came home to a loquacious cat, who was happy to either see me or to get his bed back. His bed is my suitcase. Overall, it was kind of the usual trip. |
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Route Editor
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