Cinco de Mayo Weekend

Late last summer, Marla and I drove up from Silver City to the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument, mostly to sight see. On the way, we drove through what I thought would be an excellent area to flip a pyro in the spring. When we returned home, I started making plans to make a quick run out in late April/early May of 2002 with my friend and co-worker Kenny Wray. We also decided we would try for “true” New Mexico milksnakes in south central NM.

Kenny and I left Arlington after work on Friday and headed west. On the way, we made a few stops before it got dark to herp. We first stopped at a barn site in Palo Pinto County west of Mineral Wells. There were lots of exceptionally tall and exceptionally sharp-spined thistles growing around the barn, and it wasn’t a very comfortable place to herp. We did find a few things, though: 2 Virginia striatula, 2 Eumeces obsoletus, 1 Sceloporus olivaceus, and 3 Pseudacris clarki (metamorphs).

We next found a DOR ribbon snake in Breckenridge, then stopped at my Shackleford County milksnake spot just as the sun went down. We found very little: 1 Tantilla nigriceps and 1 Eumeces obsoletus. Some of the cuts still smelled like dead rodents! There were also large numbers of Acris crepitans and Pseudacris clarki calling.

We basically drove on through most of the night, stopping in the Mescalero Sands area just west of Caprock, NM.

I awoke to the sounds of chattering western kingbirds and Bullock’s Orioles. Boy I really love sleeping in the back of the truck! We did a little herping in the Mescalero Sands BLM area after a quick breakfast, hoping to catch Dunes Sagebrush Lizards to photograph – we saw a couple, but were unable to catch any. All in all, we found: sev Sceloporus undulatus, sev Sceloporus arenicola, 3 Holbrookia maculata, and sev Uta stansburiana. We were able to catch all the other lizards to photograph.

Sceloporus undulatus tedbrowni, female - Dunes Prairie Lizard	S. u. tedbrowni, male - we thought that these were Sagebrush Lizards at first, until we keyed them out.
Holbrookia maculata, female - Lesser Earless Lizard	Holbrookia maculata, male

Driving onward, we saw a coachwhip in an abandoned building on the roadside east of Roswell, then we headed north for Lincoln County and a road that I thought would be good for Milksnakes. We stopped at several places along that road, in habitats ranging from open grassland with limestone rocks to an area of piñon-juniper and sandstone rocks. We did find a few herps, and decent variety, but no milksnakes: 7 Diadophis punctatus (ringless prairie ringnecks), 1 Crotalus viridis, 1 Masticophis flagellum DOR, 4 Tropidoclonion lineatum, 1 Eumeces multivirgatus, 5 Eumeces obsoletus, 3 Cnemidophorus inornatus, 1 Crotaphytus collaris, and 1 Sceloporus undulatus. Really, the whole area was quite dry, and conditions were not really conducive for herping.

A ringless prairie ringneck - this snake is too short to be considered a regal ringneck	A large adult female many-lined skink - the largest I've ever found. She is much browner than Texas specimens I've found.
A nice silvery Great Plains Skink	A Prairie lizard - compare it to the "tedbrowni" above
herper extroidinaire, Kenny Wray (aka Dick Bartlett's legs)	One of several lined snakes we found.

We then decided to head west for the Black Range to hunt rock rattlesnakes and pyros. We had considered hunting around Aquirre Springs in the Organ Mts, but I wanted to have the opportunity for pyros. On the way, we found a DOR gopher snake. Hiked around my Black Range spot, and only found 1 dead Urosaurus ornatus. Again, it was really quite dry.

Awoke again to the songs of the birds, warblers this time. The very first bird I saw when I opened my eyes was a red-faced warbler! Also saw black-throated gray warblers, Wilson’s warblers, painted redstarts, hepatic tanagers, blue-gray gnatcatchers, a hermit thrush, and several stellar’s jays.

Since I had hunted the “sure-thing” lepidus canyon 3 times now without seeing a snake, we decided to hunt near camp in the canyon we had slept in. The habitat looked good, if a bit dry, but we only found a few lizards: 2 Sceloporus poinsetti, 1 Sceloporus undulatus, 1 Cnemidophorus exsanguis, and a shed skin from a very large Elgaria kingii.

After two days of not finding our target species, we decided to change targets to something closer to a sure-thing – watersnakes. So we drove up to the Gila River in search of Narrow-headed Garter(Water)snakes. Besides, wading around in a clear mountain stream is awfully nice on a hot day!

Arrived at the Gila River at about 2:00 in the afternoon, and hiked around until around 4:00 p.m. We were successful in this part of our quest, and found 2 Thamnophis rufipunctatus, 2 T. cyrtopsis, 1 Sceloporus clarki, 1 Urosaurus ornatus, many Rana catesbeiana (tadpoles and metamorphs), and 2 Rana chiricahuaensis.

After we left the Gila River, we headed south for the spot that I thought looked really good for field-collecting pyros under rocks. As it turned out, the rocks looked really good, but I think it was about 2 weeks too late in the year. I think we would have been wetter and had better luck in mid-April. Anyway, we did find Kenny’s target species, finding 2 Crotalus lepidus, as well as 6 Sceloporus poinsetti, 1 Sceloporus undulatus, and several Urosaurus ornatus.

Fairly typical habitat in the area. See why I think I can flip a pyro here?	These are all I found by myself here. Kenny also found several big ones under the same rock.
Kenny's first klauberi. He was sure excited. It was under a rock out in the middle of an outcrop - well away from cracks, etc.	Kenny heard and I spotted this little guy. I'd love to see one in adult coloration from here.

We then night drove from Silver City through Deming, Columbus, and El Paso, stopping just east of the Hueco Mountains to sleep. On the way, we found 3 live and 3 DOR Arizona elegans, 2 DOR Pituophis catenifer, and 2 DOR Crotalus viridis.

a 4' gopher snake crawling across the highway.

he wasn't particularly pleased with being handled.

he's really hissing and blowing a lot here. I wish he had calmed down so that I could get a more relaxed, posed picture. He was a really pretty gopher with all of those rich yellows.

Gila River, New Mexico	We found 2 of these Black necks. This one's eaten a tadpole.
This baby T. rufipunctatus was laying out on the bottom of the stream.	This is an adult male T. rufipunctatus. It really looks a lot more like a Nerodia than a Thamnophis.