Suzio Report - Late June

Howdy Herpers,                                                        07/03/12

First off, happy birthday to Dennis Caldwell. I hope you will all check in and wish him well. The dude is like Peter Pan--he never grows up, and never grows old. Have a good one buddy, and live forever!

We had an interesting weekend. What's the point in having an interesting weekend if we can't broadcast it to 300 of you?

On Saturday morning, Patti Mahaney and I assailed the Valley of the Truly Happy. Patti was kind enough to find us a cerberus, which is the reason for going there. Then, on Saturday night, Mr. Slone led me up our hill, down our hill, back up our hill, and back down our hill. Then we went to the far NE side of our hill, and then headed a kilometer or so west. Yup--the herps are moving all over the place now. And with so many new ones, we have no clue as to which way they are traveling. 


This makes for much flandickery and excessive boot and body wear when tracking them.

We'll let the pictures tell part of the story.

Pics 1 and 2: Patti's cerberus. A GORGEOUS male.





Pics 3 and 4: Our female atrox #121, "Tracy." The first image was taken on 24 June. She looks in need of a plot biscuit. The second was as we found her on 30 June. 
She got a plot biscuit!



Pics 5 and 6: Our new tiger female #CT12. This is the first we have seen of her since releasing her in early June. If you look at the rattle in the first image, you will see that there are 2 uncolored rattles downstream of the basal. This would indicate a recent shed. In fact, I would guess that all of our snakes have shed recently. The second image is where she settled down and waited for us to leave.She traveled from the top of the hill, near AD5, all the way to the bottom of the southeast side of the hill.

Pics 7 and 8: Our molossus #10, "Susan." What the image doesn't show is the strips of our flesh being gaily festooned to the catclaw jungle that rises above her. Two of our molossus seem to heavily favor catclaw, which may be why we find so few of them out there. It's hard to herp inside those pernicious plants.

Pics 9 and 10:  Now there's something you don't see every day! A nice leopard lizard snoozing away in a creosote bush. This is the first Gambelia to be seen on the plot in over a year and a half. What a way to find one. Check out that last image. He's kind of letting it all hang out!

That's about all that's fit to spit. We are expecting some major cloudbursts tonight, and I'm very hopeful that forecast holds up. Could be a gorgeous morning in paradise tomorrow.

Best to all, and happy 4th!

roger