Thursday, May 15, 2008

Triumphant return to the pointless world of internet blogging

Thanks to my enjoyment of following Sheri's Colorado adventure via blog, I've decided to start my own...again. Who knows how long this one will last, but it's an easy way to share any interesting occurrances or insights I may find while traveling about. Speaking of...

yesterday while traversing the Stanislaus National Forest in order to flag out our survey area for the summer, I came across a couple fascinating little fellows.


Let me introduce you to Thamnophis elegans elegans, more easily remembered as the mountain gartersnake (a subspecies of the western terrestrial gartersnake). Unfortunately these aren't my pictures as I didn't have a camera on me, but who doesn't love visuals?


And these two lovebirds (they don't shy away from a little rough biting during mating) are Elegaria coerulea palmeri or the Sierra alligator lizard (subspecies of the Northern alligator lizard). We actually did find them in this exact pose along with two or three other non-mating individuals in the area later that day.



This creature is really one of two reasons we're in this forest to begin with. Strix occidentalis occidentalis or the California spotted owl is one of the birds we're surveying for here this summer. Techincally we weren't surveying at all when we came across a female nesting yesterday, with her mate calling not far off. Hopefully when we check back on these nests later in the season they will be filled with little puff-ball owls.
And all this in just one day! If the rest of the summer proves to be this rewarding, it will be worth the insects bites, struggling through brush and shrubs, suffering the intense dry heat, and climbing up and down ridiculous slopes.





1 comment:

sherbieface said...

I saw herp and thought herpes. I couldn't help it.