Category: Reptiles

Tails to Tell

The distinctive tail of a western diamondback rattlesnake

Last week I saw my first Gila monster but got my best look at its tail as it slowly walked into the bushes. This morning I saw my first western diamondback rattlesnake but also got my best look at its distinctive tail as it slowly slithered into the bushes. Thankfully I didn’t spook it, as I crested a small hill I saw it far enough away that it wasn’t startled and I kept a respectful distance. I had already put my camera away but had time to take off my backpack and get the camera out and take a picture of that beautiful tail.

Morning Glory

A Gila monster wanders into the brush beside the Cholla Mountain Loop Trail in the Brown's Ranch section of McDowell Sonoran Preserve in Scottsdale, Arizona

I hesitate to post this as not only is it not a good picture but you’re only seeing the tail end (ahem) of a brief encounter Saturday morning. But this brief encounter already joins my pantheon of favorite hiking moments, as the one creature I wanted to see in Arizona above all others, but the one I knew was rare to see, was the Gila monster. I arrived at Brown’s Ranch before sunrise Saturday morning as I have many times the past couple of months, this section of McDowell Sonoran Preserve has been the place I’ve visited most frequently. I hoped to photograph Gambel’s quail up on the saguaros in the lovely morning light but I found something unexpected when I arrived at the trailhead: clouds.

I’m used to clouds. I’m from Oregon. But I’ve gotten so used to blue skies here in the desert that I’ve only been checking temperatures before I hike, not cloud cover. The clouds were thick (for Arizona, not for Oregon), thick enough to snuff out the morning light, and that meant a change of plans. Instead of looking for wildlife along familiar trails, I immediately headed out eastward on the Chuckwagon Trail. I had hiked it the week before with the sun in my eyes so I took advantage of the cloud cover to shoot patterns in the plants and rocks along the trail and had a grand time.

I wasn’t seeing much wildlife, not even a lizard, and jokingly thought to myself that I hadn’t been in Arizona long enough to know who to complain to about that. I hiked further on the trails this time, up to Cathedral Rock, and turned around to try some different trails on the route back. I packed up my telephoto lens as the sun was getting a bit bright, swapped my tripod for my hiking poles, and set off to explore.

I didn’t make it very far. There it was crossing the trail in front of me, one of the most beautiful creatures I’ve ever seen, this Gila monster. As slowly as it walked – walked? waddled would be a better term – and as colorful as it was, it soon disappeared into the desert brush. I grabbed my little Sony out of my camera bag and got a quick picture before it was gone from sight, but there was no time to set the focus on its head. Then it was gone.

We only shared a few seconds together but I’ll remember those seconds for a lifetime. I returned to Brown’s Ranch this morning but the clouds did not. I found my quail on a saguaro, and more besides. The desert is full of wonders, but this wonder, this monster, I hope to meet again.

This Chart Keeps Me Up at Night

A comparison of the monthly average highs and lows betwen Portland and Phoenix

This chart isn’t literally keeping me up at night but of the many unknowns in both starting a new job and moving to a new area it’s what scares me the most. It compares the average monthly high and low temperatures throughout the year, the highs and lows for Portland in blue, Phoenix in red and orange. I can’t wrap my head around how the lows in Phoenix match the highs in Portland.

I think I’ll love the winter in Arizona. I think I’ll hibernate in the summer.

We’ll have air conditioning, and the house we hope to rent has a lovely pool (as does our backup option). I love to swim but have rarely had the chance for decades so that I am very much looking forward to. And that’s not all, as there will be lizards. Oh yes, there will be lizards. I can think of only one lizard I saw in 21 years of hiking in the wet side of the Northwest. I saw them in the dry side to the east, and perhaps I’m forgetting some I saw on my side of the Cascades, but if so they were the exceptions that prove the rule: reptiles are few and far between near Portland. We met this eastern fence lizard (I think) on the Little Arsenic Trail in the high desert of New Mexico, looking forward to seeing lizards in the Sonoran Desert where we will live.

Reptiles and heat, one of them I’m going to love, hopefully I can at least tolerate the other.

An eastern fence lizard sits on a rock beside the Little Arsenic Trail in the Rio Grande del Norte National Monument in New Mexico

Crab Breakfast

An American alligator lurches forward and scoops up a crab from the marsh at Huntington Beach State Park in South Carolina

As the sun rose, I noticed a group of alligators in this marshy section of the freshwater lagoon at Huntington Beach State Park but didn’t realize why they were there. Then one suddenly lurched forward and scooped up a little crab from the mats of organic material (algae? bacteria?) floating in the water, and then another did it, and another. It was remarkable how quickly they would go from floating motionless to catching the crabs and back to floating motionless.

An American alligator raises its head to swallow a crab at Huntington Beach State Park in South Carolina

Can You See Me?

An eastern fence lizard clings to the vertical face of a tree

An eastern fence lizard, clinging to the vertical face of a tree, nearly blends into the background. It looked up at me for a moment, I suppose to determine if it had been spotted (it had) and if it was going to be eaten (it wasn’t).