So Many Scorpions!
Apr. 6th, 2011 01:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
summer_jackelOne vulture floats above;
it is spring, the earth is black and moist
snakes and snails, salamanders, slugs and scorpions
rest under almost every bit of fallen wood
and all the small things seethe with joy and life.
***
Woo, if any day deserved a poem, it was yesterday; they probably chose April as NaPo month for a reason. Kyn and I walked to Badger Hill (so the greater majority of a day) and turned up all sorts of wood and rocks (carefully) looking for wildlife, which we found in great abundance. We found no less than three scorpions, only one of whom was the same individual I found a couple of days ago, as well as a different rubber boa, the same baby gopher snake, and all kinds of salamanders, centipedes, millipedes, wood ants, etc. It was grand.
Fat little wood scorpion!
Kyn coaxed the scorpion onto her hand; it did not pinch or sting her. These little guys are quite harmless and hardly seem to deserve a name as flashy as Uroctonus mordax.
Baby rubber boa! This little guy was so very sweet and new, and looked like he'd just shed. All of the wildlife up there seemed so healthy.
I am pretty certain that this little fellow is a juvie gopher snake, although I would be interested in alternate opinions if anyone has them.
awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww...
A CA slender salamander:
Another two:
baby ensatina and slug:
EDIT: Thank you Kyn for IDing these guys as Harpaphe haydeniana based on bugguide here: http://bugguide.net/node/view/102339/bgpage The flash ruined this pic (but the camera refused to take one without); these guys are very stunning, shiny black with bright yellow spots. My guess is that if I was a bird, I wouldn't want to eat these. (ok, so I don't want to...or even touch it...anyway. Cool beastie, though).
While we look at wildlife, dogs practice stays. This was a long enough walk (and might have been longer) so we left all of our senior canines at home. Dog age is certainly a bit sad, but it's a necessary part of keeping dogs, and I am comforted by the fact that they all got walks of more comfortable length today.
When not on a stay, they (especially Rooster) find mud to play in whenever they can. Alas, they were clean before the walk. Not now.
Rough collies are so pretty (mud notwithstanding).
Handsome mudpuppy
sits forever and ever.
When they aren't zooming.
Coba being soft, furry and glamorous.
it is spring, the earth is black and moist
snakes and snails, salamanders, slugs and scorpions
rest under almost every bit of fallen wood
and all the small things seethe with joy and life.
***
Woo, if any day deserved a poem, it was yesterday; they probably chose April as NaPo month for a reason. Kyn and I walked to Badger Hill (so the greater majority of a day) and turned up all sorts of wood and rocks (carefully) looking for wildlife, which we found in great abundance. We found no less than three scorpions, only one of whom was the same individual I found a couple of days ago, as well as a different rubber boa, the same baby gopher snake, and all kinds of salamanders, centipedes, millipedes, wood ants, etc. It was grand.
Fat little wood scorpion!
Kyn coaxed the scorpion onto her hand; it did not pinch or sting her. These little guys are quite harmless and hardly seem to deserve a name as flashy as Uroctonus mordax.
Baby rubber boa! This little guy was so very sweet and new, and looked like he'd just shed. All of the wildlife up there seemed so healthy.
I am pretty certain that this little fellow is a juvie gopher snake, although I would be interested in alternate opinions if anyone has them.
awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww...
A CA slender salamander:
Another two:
baby ensatina and slug:
EDIT: Thank you Kyn for IDing these guys as Harpaphe haydeniana based on bugguide here: http://bugguide.net/node/view/102339/bgpage The flash ruined this pic (but the camera refused to take one without); these guys are very stunning, shiny black with bright yellow spots. My guess is that if I was a bird, I wouldn't want to eat these. (ok, so I don't want to...or even touch it...anyway. Cool beastie, though).
While we look at wildlife, dogs practice stays. This was a long enough walk (and might have been longer) so we left all of our senior canines at home. Dog age is certainly a bit sad, but it's a necessary part of keeping dogs, and I am comforted by the fact that they all got walks of more comfortable length today.
When not on a stay, they (especially Rooster) find mud to play in whenever they can. Alas, they were clean before the walk. Not now.
Rough collies are so pretty (mud notwithstanding).
Handsome mudpuppy
sits forever and ever.
When they aren't zooming.
Coba being soft, furry and glamorous.
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no subject
Date: 2011-04-06 09:20 pm (UTC)Your snakie looks like a Racer juvie to me. Not sure what species are in your area... maybe yellow-bellied?
no subject
Date: 2011-04-06 09:31 pm (UTC)Did he go crazy when you flipped him? Racers, even babies, can be fairly nuts :)
no subject
Date: 2011-04-06 11:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-07 04:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-07 11:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-07 01:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-07 11:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-07 05:06 pm (UTC)I've had baby gopher snakes- they have all their markings even very young.
(We had millions of little racers and a few hatchling gopher snakes around the family property when I was a kid- The racers were always extremely aggressive too.)
Racers also have a different body conformity. Nearly round or hemispherical, a bit like a garden hose- while the gopher babies cross section is more like a tall arch. Even newly hatched, they are little powerhouses of muscle!
(The most fun is finding one that likes to wind around your wrist and ride around like a bracelet for hours at a time.)
I envy you finding rubber boas!
I've never seen one in the wild.
Wood scorps are cool.
We had them out in Ingot, east of Redding. I never found any closer than 20 miles to the city, but that might have been due to habitat preferences.
Much hotter and drier near Redding.
Kind of the same issue with California newts-
They're everywhere 20 miles from where I lived, but you never see them in the area where I was at.
The real challenge for you now is finding a California long nosed leopard lizard.
I saw only one my entire life in the valley behind the house when I was a kid- never saw another one.
Jim Groat refused to believe me, insisting theres no such thing- but I found the species in a California reptile guide book complete with a map showing I was in the extreme northern end of their range.
Most of the online resources I've looked at say they don't range that far north, but a few say they are found as far north as southern Oregon.
-Badger-
no subject
Date: 2011-04-07 08:52 pm (UTC)I would love to see the leopard lizard!!! Is it this species, http://www.californiaherps.com/lizards/pages/g.wislizenii.html Gambelia wislizenii? The Redding area isn't in their range according to that site, but I can easily believe a small population having moved West from the Nevada population. I'd probably have more luck looking in the desert for that species, but when I'm there, I will keep an eye out.
no subject
Date: 2011-04-08 09:22 am (UTC)From photos, I've long since concluded the one I saw was a male.
I looked up several guides when I was writing the original reply, and it seems like no two of them agree on the extent of the range of this species.
The book I found was a mid 90s publication, and it showed a long "finger" of range extending into Shasta county.
I think the range shown now may have been reduced, based on no new reports since the massive building boom in the state destroyed so much habitat.
Bear in mind the one I saw was in maybe 1974- And I never saw him again.
Never saw any others either, and I spent a LOT of time over the years looking in the area after failing to catch him.
That little valley was plowed up and turned into tract housing in the early 80s, so the little guy's territory was destroyed a long time ago.
The tiny little owls we used to see there left when that started too.
My father insisted they were burrowing owls- but I'm not sure.
I only got poor looks at them a few times.
Just enough to say they were grey/brown, and about the size of a larg-ish lovebird or a quail.
(First time I saw one, I thought it was a quail till my father pointed out it had no crest and was holding still...Something quail never do when they know they've been spotted.)
I couldn't identify them from memory now- its been too long, and I never got as good a look as I did at the leopard lizard- which I was close enough to that I nearly caught him.
-Badger-