I feel it’s only fair to contrast the beauty of this lovely rainbow with the subsequent picture of cow flop. Free range cattle were all over the place in southern AZ, they’re super creepy. They have a tendency to be jet black and stand in the middle of the road as soon as the sunsets. If you manage to get past them without a collision then they stare at you resentfully with piercing red eyes. Their poop is also super annoying since it has a tendency to look very rattlesnake-esque in you headlights, when your road cruising for herps at night.

Anurans (Frogs and Toads) are some of my favorite amphibians. Every species I encountered on this trip was a lifer for me. In other words; this was the first time I’d seen any of these in their natural habitat. A real special treat was getting up close and personal with the Colorado River Toad (Bufo alvarius). As far a hallucinogenic amphibians go this guy is the real deal…

Colorado River Toad

Couch’s Spadefoot (Scaphiopus couchii)

Great Plains Toad (Bufo cognatus)

Canyon Treefrog (Hyla arenicolor)

Red Spotted Toad Bufo punctatus

Even though there was an abundant diversity of anurans, we didn’t encounter many “true frogs” (Genus Rana). However, their offspring were present.

As far as the lizard diversity goes I was a little disappointed. I really wanted to see some “Horny Toads” (Genus Phrynosoma). And I really, really wanted to se a Gila Monster (Heloderma suspectum). But, no luck : - ( The two species of saurian that seemed to be the most ubiquitous were The Mountain Spiny Lizard (Sceloporus jarrovii) and the Striped Plateau Lizard (Sceloporus virgatus)

Also, if one is ever bitten by a Madrean Alligator lizard (Elgaria kingii), then one should consider it only appropriate to bite it back.


The real appeal of Southern Arizona is its rich diversity of Rattlers. Nowhere else in the US are there so many different species of Crotalus living in the same state.
The Black Tail Rattlesnake (Crotalus mollosus) was the species we seemed to encounter the most. Actually I hadn’t been off of the airplane for more than an hour before stumbling upon the first one. The black tail is fairly common, and is the Rattlesnake one is most likley to find at higher elevations.

Black Tail Rattlesnake (Crotalus mollosus)

Black Tail Rattlesnake (Crotalus mollosus)

At lower elevations the Western Diamond Back Rattlesnake (Crotalus atrox) is one of the more commonly road cruised species.

A real diamond in the rough, the Banded Rock Rattlesnake (Crotalus lepidus klauberi) is one of the rare montane species of rattlesnakes endemic to the sky islands. We were fortunate enough to find eight specimens on this trip. However the other montane species; The Ridge nosed Rattlesnake, and Twin spotted Rattlesnake managed to elude us.

Banded Rock Rattlesnake (Crotalus lepidus klauberi)

Another lower elevation species The Tiger Rattlesnake (Crotalus tigris) was another jewel of this trip. Not nearly as common as the WDB or Mojave. We were lucky enough to find a couple of these.

Common but cool, the Green Mojave Rattlesnake (Crotalus scutulatus) was another common find during lower elevation road cruising. The bad boy in the picture below was a stone cold killer. He lunged repeatedly at my partner and I with a wicked ferocity and never gave his rattle the slightest twitch. Much like a discrete yet pungent fart, this guy was S. B. D.

Another awesome find and My partner JC's primary target species The Arizona Black Rattlesnake (Crotalus viridis cerberus). This One's just a baby so it's still got it's juvenile pattern, but as it grows older it should become quite dark and irridescent.

Not all the snakes we found were Rattlers;

Long Nosed Snake (Rhinocheilus lecontei)

Sonoran Gopher Snake (Pituophis catenifer affinis)

Considering my preconception that arizona was a dry arid state, I was surprised at how lush and green everything was during the monsoon. It was very strange to be walking through green hardwood forest and having numerous cacti and agave thrown into the vegetational mix.

Barrel Cactus

What was even weirder where the wild uncultivated watermelons you'd find grownig in the middle of the desset.

Oh Yeah, we can't forget the Invertebrates;

Bark Scorpion (Centruroides sculpturatus)

Arizona Giant Centipede (Scolopendra polymorpha)

Desert Tarantula (Aphonopelma chalcodes)

So anyway, This is all I've had time to process and upload thus far. However keep your eyes on my Flickr page, as I still have in excess of four hundred RAW images sitting on my lap top waiting to be processed.