Daryl Plays Catch-up A Tale of Two Trash Snakes Part 5 Read: A Tale of Two Trash Snakes Part 4 What would a downpour do to Carol’s scent trail? It’s already been a couple of days since she passed over the ground here – did Daryl miss his chance at love, at least for now? The ground is… Read More
Daryl Prowls A Tale of Two Trash Snakes Part 4 Read: A Tale of Two Trash Snakes Part 3 He again gave a little buzz to remind me he’s not to be trifled with. I alerted Melissa so we could get photos, and we watched him begin to inspect some of the very places we had watched… Read More
Carol Stays for Seconds A Tale of Two Trash Snakes Part 3 Read: A Tale of Two Trash Snakes Part 2 The day Carol revealed herself to us, consuming a whiptail on our doorstep, she ended up on the far side of the garage, under an old metal sheet. As night fell, I cast a dim light under her… Read More
Carol Comes for Dinner A Tale of Two Trash Snakes Part 2 Read: A Tale of Two Trash Snakes Part 1 The bike ride was hard, and now I was hungry. I set up the solar oven outside our front entrance to preheat, and flopped onto the couch. Not 10 minutes had gone by when I returned outside with… Read More
Daryl Saves A Tale of Two Trash Snakes Part 1 Well into our second summer, we didn’t have much hope left that we’d moved to serpent’s paradise. We had traded the city for the Gila National Forest with high hopes of snakes on our doorstep, but with each passing, snakeless day, we questioned whether our forested, northern… Read More
Giving Thanks 2018 This year we were blessed by one of the most exciting and interesting wildlife observations in recent memory -– and it happened right outside our door! We did our best to film and photo document what we saw, and we are excited to bring the saga back to life in a series of upcoming posts.… Read More
Snake Peeks: Spring Fling and Babies New videos in our YouTube series Snake Peeks Even where snakes are common, they can be difficult to observe because they are shy and easily disturbed. Through good fortune and patience we’ve been able to record brief moments in the lives of wild snakes. These portraits of behavior may oppose what many (most?) people… Read More
Taken Like most visitors to Arizona, I had never heard of a rock rattlesnake when I first visited the Chiricahua Mountains in 1999. But there he was, a rattlesnake in miniature with gorgeous markings and a big personality. I was completely taken by this little snake, and he changed the course of my life; I gave… Read More
Sharing Ever since we saw Roger Repp’s talk at the Tucson Herpetological Society, Burrow Buddies — or Not?, we’ve been fascinated by different reptile species sharing shelter sites. Multiple species often share the same overwintering site; we shared this fun example here back in April: At one of our new dens at Muleshoe Ranch, we have… Read More