Each year during the monsoon, these amazing little frogs show up. They’re often mistaken for poisonous toads due to their superficial similarity and typically green color. It’s a Couch’s Spadefoot, a small and harmless species that spends much of its time underground. Its name is literal: to help with the underground lifestyle, it has hard […]

A Speckled Rattlesnake from the Belmont Mountains, west of Phoenix. These rattlesnakes in this range often lack much of the characteristic speckling within the eye, leaving solid-colored, light grey or pale white eyes. A typical response when we post a snake from this area is something like “it’s ready to shed skin”, though that is […]

A Gila Monster takes a morning stroll through springtime ground cover in 2024. The dry conditions this year have resulted in less green on the ground, increasing surface temperatures and making the desert with even less surface moisture than before. This will be a challenging year for many animals. Fingers crossed for a decent monsoon.

Just before sunset, we found a Great Basin Rattlesnake crossing a road in northeastern Arizona. It was bothered for a few minutes while we took some photos.

A Southwestern Speckled Rattlesnake looking just like a chunk of granite, fallen off the overhead outcrop. As the sun gets lower in the sky, a variety of rodents, birds, and lizards do what they do in surrounding bushes and rocks, oblivious to the invisible predator. To hikers on the mountain, they’re often just as cryptic, […]

A California Kingsnake I saw crossing a road near my house. I was out looking for baby Western Diamondback Rattlesnakes to move off the roadway, which were out in force that night. I think this kingsnake and I were doing the same thing, though hoping for different outcomes. I moved it to the side of […]

Brown-throated Three Toed Sloth from Costa Rica back in November. I’ve rarely seen them be more than brown blob up in binocular range, so some activity (slowly of course) was nice.

I first saw the diagonal parallel track lines in the sand, and stopped the car to take look for who left them. Nearby, the track-owner was on the move: a male Sonoran Sidewinder (right). I recognized its behavior as tracking something … maybe food, a mate, etc. His head moved side to side, tongue flicking […]

Some of the many, many Zebra-tailed Lizards from a famous beach at the southern tip of Baja California.

A Tiger Rattlesnake from the Phoenix area. These snakes are common in the right conditions, but rarely seen by hikers. One reason: they tend to be more nocturnal than similar species. While they can certainly be found in the daytime, they’re often the first to head in for the day. This one had been out […]