First of all, did I mention I seriously kick butt at Wheres Waldo? I found a Sonoran Desert toad, one of the species of amphibians I was looking for! BOOM! Not only did I find one, I found six! BOOM! No leopard frogs this summer, but finding what you're looking for sure lifts your spirits.
Not only did I find a target species, but Sonoran Desert toads were a new species for me to see. I was pretty excited. The story went something like this, walked up to the sight and noticed this large rock was hopping... Ya, they are that big. I wish there was some scale with these pictures, think small melon :)
One of the other biologist was working with Sherman traps (rectangular boxes for rodents; they crawl in, trip the trigger and the box closes around them), and a Sonoran Desert toad somehow managed to squeeze into one and was trapped. She picked it up first noticing that it was unusually heavy, but the light bulb clicked when a slimy ooze poured out of the corner of the trap. :)
Really happy I at least found one of the animals I was looking for, writing zeros got old after a while. What was really funny about it all, is after searching far and wide for these guys in some nice desert habitat, I found them in this....
Yup, that would be a bathtub with a drippy sprinkler in it.... I can just see it now as I write my report with conservation recommendations "species requires porcelain and leaky sprinkler heads"
Saw a lot of other cool things as well in the second half of the summer. Not far from where we found the toads, I was wandering around in some thick Salt Cedar corridors, cursing the tree and its fuzz for going up my nose. Then out of no where I found this guy
I have seen this same species many places else where, but that sub-species was speckled, not banded... I think I like the bands, really pretty and stands out against the rocks and brown of the rest of the habitat.
We've been getting a lot of rain in Flagstaff for the last couple of months. The monsoons don't mess around up here. I love it. It makes everything look, feel and smell like an Irish Spring commercial. Surprisingly I found this little New Mexico Spadefoot hopping around outside my house. I had only ever seen these guys at much lower elevation in the desert! I guess he can hike up a mountain too. He is a really young one, this years eggs.
I made a trip out to Tuscon area for a meeting late in the summer. There was a large group of us and a bunch of co-workers, so lots of good banter. Ya know the kind, "what you only found 6 toads???" "Ya, that's six more then you would find!" We took a field trip out to Sabino Canyon, really just a few minutes outside of the city. The main objective of the trip was obvious, and guess who found it?!?! I told you I was good at Wheres Waldo.
Gila Monster! He's like a big lizard tank.
Found some other really cool reptiles down there too. Check out the colors on this earless lizard. I chased him around for 45 minutes or so trying to get him to pose.
We also found some desert tortoises. This was the second time I had found tortoises this summer. The first time was randomly in the middle of the road, in the middle of the night, with absolutely nothing else around him. This was also the same night I was stranded :) Alternators sure do like to crap out on you in the most inconvenient times don't they? Like when you are 30 miles from anything, without cell phone reception. At least it was night so I didn't have the sun blazing down on me as I hike the five or so miles out to get cell service. It was fine, I had my water, I had my bag of potato chips what else do I need? It was just me and the tortoise.
Long summer, with long hot days. But all in all not bad. Flag is already cooling off, well into the 40's at night. Hmm, so this must be what Fall feels like. I'm not sure Texas has ever had a Fall.
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