Howdy Herpers,
Sunday, March 18 brought upon us the weather conditions that are ideal for herping: 8 degrees C, rain and sleet, and howling winds. John Slone and Marty Feldner joined me for the arctic blast, and we had a blast in the process. There were others who were supposed to join us, but at the first sign of bad weather, they starting mewing like baby bunnies going down a Gila Monsters gullet. “We’re AFRAID, Roger. We might get all wet. Meow………” So, three manly men arrived in the teeth of a hail storm, and the first stop was a check on AD1. And from here, we can let the images tell the story.
Image 1: The scene at the lower apron of AD1. Note how the globe mallow this snake is under is dripping wet.
Pic 2: Mallow moved aside. Note the head on this adult male atrox. Rain harvesting posture.
Pic 3: The first female atrox that I’ve seen at AD1 in over 3 years. VERY cool! She was likely drinking off the upper edge of the crevice.
Pic 4: We find this atrox under the leaning boulder that we call “Kimmie Rock.” This boulder is ~2m west of the almighty crevice of AD7. Hopeful that he might be stacked on a female, we hauled him out.
No female, and apparently, too many years of chawing Skoal had done some damage to the lower left lip.
Pic 5: Closeup of lip, and good left eye.
Pic 6: Closeup of right eye. I got the impression that this poor dude was blind in this eye. Any Vets care to venture an opinion?
We also had a tortoise completely out, head nuzzled against the edge of a prickly pear. It is possible she was drinking drops off one of the pads. We drove through a sleet storm to another den in the Durham Mountains, where we found one atrox out cruising in the sleet!
That’s all that’s fit to spit. Until the next time, roger
