A Barking Frog Emerges on a Wet Monsoon Night

I got a chance to photograph this Barking Frog (Craugastor augusti) on a soaking wet night in the mountains of southeastern Arizona. These relatively large frogs spend nearly their entire lives stuffed into deep fissures and caves on steep, rocky cliffs. On the right nights during the monsoon, they’ll emerge for a short time, where they can be detected on the surface. Their “bark” is more of a loud squawk that can be heard from a great distance and sounds like “wwaalk wwalk”.

You can hear it calling in this video, taken by one of the naturalists who found the frog and allowed me to photograph it: https://www.instagram.com/reels/C1NFOvpRlMB/

Red Speckled Rattlesnake In Ambush

A Southwestern Speckled Rattlesnake in ambush on a humid night a couple of years back. Like many other desert reptiles, the monsoon and period after are the most active times of year. Humid air and cooler, stable temperatures make for safer activity, and a lot has to be done in a relatively short amount of time.

Southwestern Speckled Rattlesnake (Crotalus pyrrhus)

https://rattlesnakesolutions.com/SpeckledRattlesnake