kid-herper's Favorites

I spotted this coral snake crossing the road, then while photographing it spotted a second coral snake just a few feet away on the dirt embankment - https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/230934340. My first thought was they might have been doing some sort of courtship, but when this one ran into the second one it immediately shot off in the opposite direction so it became clear that wasn't it. I was confused because this snake seemed to be circling around this area for a good 10-15 minutes, then I noticed the already-dead threadsnake. I don't know if the coral snake bit the threadsnake and was tracking it down, or if the ants killed it and the coral snake just smelled it in the area, but it eventually found it and chomped down. The threadsnake was already swarming with ants, which started attacking the coral snake, so the coral snake held onto the threadsnake with its mouth and shot off really fast for about 20 feet to shake off the ants. Once it was clear of the ants it ate the threadsnake over the course of about 20 minutes.

https://youtu.be/EzkI57iIQ3k

Lyre being eaten by a striped racer. I will create a separate observation for the striped racer, located here: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/112218400 . Photo & observation by Bruce Pavalon

Young adult male (Tyrosinase positive albino?) collected AOR on Hwy 90 3.2 miles W of Brackettville by Cam and Brenda Posey on 6/11/2010 @ 12:50 a.m.

Pattern is consistent with area splendida (I have seen others from Highway 90 in the 1990s) and this type of albino is not represented in L. (g.) splendida in captive snake collections, thus it is not likely an escaped or released pet snake. The specimen was several years under my care (2015-2018) and acted like a wild snake as well (musking frequently even after years in captivity). It is still alive at these additional notes (May 2022) and has been bred by myself (first time in 2016) and Cam Posey producing six heterozygous offspring. None of those have been bred at this time.

Map point is approximate.

The story as I remember it on this one. Someone sent me a text saying they found this snake and had it in a bucket but wanted me to ID it. They "tossed a lizard in with it". I got there later and looked in the bucket under something they had and it was eating the ground skink. Kind of freaked me out when I saw it for two reasons, they had a protected species in a bucket which is a no no and the fact that it was eating a skink. Any website you go to at this point only listed crowned snakes as their food source. Since this pic you see more than just snakes listed. I caught a lot of hell for this pic I took and encouraged the home owner to release it back where he found it after it finished eating

Beautiful leucistic Cal King found while road cruising in the Mojave! This lavender morph is common in the pet trade but rare to find out in the wild. It was very far from human habitation so it is definitely not an escaped captive bred snake.

I was amazed to find this Sierran Treefrog trying to make a meal of a juvenile Taricha.

When I flipped the log the newt was upside down and in the frog's mouth, but was soon let go. The frog's tongue stuck out for a few seconds afterwards, I'd like to think due to awesome tetrodotoxin.

Pepperwood Preserve. Santa Rosa, California.

Amazing encounter watching this lizard biting snake. Snuggled up to tire after we stopped to look. (Not stuck or driven on!) Eventually all departed separately. Lizard ran down road full speed way up on its feet.

Around 5pm today in the middle of the road. Large 3ft or more snake. Hisisng, loud, almost like a rattle noise. But no tail rattle. Defensive while I kept distance. Aggressive. Never took its eyes off me. Opened mouth often. No teeth. Black eyes. Black tongue. Large center. Moments prior a large barred owl flew past my windshield and watched me as I approached snake. An epic moment in my day. I was going to pick up my son who was with a native medicine woman.

This is the most colorful Western Fence Lizard I have ever seen. Scrolling through online photos on Californiaherps.com and other sites I see there are examples of this coloration out there, but they’re few and far between.