Trip to Dunes with Hyrum

We took one of Ian's new friends, Hyrum, out to the Algodones Dunes 

last night to catch some critters.

We found some sand crickets--look how their legs are adapted for digging in the sand:

We found this banded gecko:

And, of course, we caught LOTS of scorpions, as usual...

It was a fitting end to a relaxing Memorial Day weekend.

Shrike Mania--Part III

We checked on our shrike nest after another week and found the babies fledged and hopping about.

We took down the trail camera the next day because the babies had left the nest.

It had been a fun observation (and we think we may add trail camera to our 

Christmas list since we have to return this one to the Game and Fish Dept.).

Dr. Phil was out again for a few days and drove around looking at shrike nests with us. 

We stopped at a power substation along one of the roads with powerlines 

and checked out the barbed wire fence surrounding it.

This is what we found:

Can you see 3 FTHL heads above?

We collected no fewer than 12 FTHL heads from the fence corner by the truck in the photo!

That shrike must have made an impression on his potential mates!

Other Critters of Interest

Each day during surveys, April encounters other wildlife besides Flat-tailed Horned Lizards. Here is a sampling of some she's captured on film.

 Zebra-tailed Lizard

Sidewinder

 Unidentified Wasp

Sidewinder trying to eat a juvenile Fringe-toed Lizard

Long-tailed Brush Lizard

Shrike Mania--Part II

Remember the shrike nests we found and marked? When we checked on them two weeks later, the ones with eggs had either been raided or abandoned--sad.

However, we did find more nests. 

This one was built in a fence and had fledglings. 

When one of them got spooked and left the nest, we decided to not get any closer.

This nest was built on a power line. 

Apparently this family didn't mind the constant buzzing of electricity.

And our most exciting find was this nest, built in a creosote, with 3 babies!

Obviously they were hungry and wanted us to feed them...

...even though one still had the tail of a long-tailed brush lizard hanging out of its mouth.

We put a trail camera on this nest (courtesy of AZ Fish & Game) and checked it over the next week. Out of several hundreds of photos, we got a handful of interesting ones where either one or both of the parents came to feed the babies.

 No Flat-tailed Horned Lizards were identifiable as prey as far as we could see.

Personal Letter from Erin Hunter

This post by Megan

Erin Hunter, the author of Warriors, one of my favorite book series, went on tour around the US this spring. Sadly, she didn't come close enough to Yuma for me to go to one of her book signings. Dad suggested that I could write her some letters and send them to the bookstores she would be visiting. 

I wrote seven different letters, and to my surprise, about a month later, I got a package from Great Britain in the mail! It contained nothing other than a signed book and a hand-written letter on Warriors stationary from Erin Hunter/Vicky Holmes (there are four women who write under the pseudonym of Erin Hunter--Vicky is the one who went on tour) . I was so excited and surprised that I started crying, which was pretty embarrassing, but at the time I didn't really care. My hands were shaking so hard that it was a bit difficult to read the letter. 

Erin/Vicky said that she's never had fanmail waiting for her at bookstores before, and my letters were a highlight of the tour. She answered my questions, even though I'm sure she's been asked the same questions many times. I had mentioned that I have a goal of becoming a published author by the age of eighteen, and she said that she has no doubt that I will achieve that goal. I've re-read the letter countless times, and I had Dad scan it onto the computer for me, just in case. I hope that someday I'll be able to meet Erin Hunter in person!

Shrike Mania--Part I

 

The Loggerhead Shrike is the second main predator of the Flat-tailed Horned Lizard. This bird is renowned for its behavior of impaling its prey on sharp sticks or barbs. It loves to perch along utility poles/lines where it can get a good view of the surrounding land and find its prey.

We have a collection of impaled FTHL heads as a result of Kevin's prior research. In fact, our previous observations led to his famous 2004 publication in the prestigious Science journal, where he proposed that shrike predation was a driving force for evolution of longer horns in this species (which has the longest horns relative to head size of any of the 17 species of horned lizard).

So, imagine our excitement when we discovered not one, not two, but FOUR shrike nests in creosote bushes all within a couple miles of each other along a dirt road on BOR land! Some of the nests had eggs, others did not; one looked like it had been raided by a predator. We flagged all the nests and plan to check back on them.

We hope to put a trail camera on one or two of the nests. Stay tuned!

Kevin's Class Field Trip

When you are a biology professor at Arizona Western College, you get to take your students out on field trips to the surrounding desert. You can also take your wife and children along too, because you're in charge. You wax eloquent, teaching them all about desert critters and the tracks they make in the sand, but focusing on your favorite lizard, the Flat-tailed Horned Lizard. Because, unknown to the students, you are testing them to see who might make a good field crew member for the U of AZ team who needs to hire more personnel.

Your children draw pictures in the sand, because they've already heard all you have to say about FTHLs numerous times. Even though they would make excellent crew members, alas, they are too young to be hired.

You then send the students out with pin flags, to set up mini survey plots.

Your youngest child suggests you take a look over in this direction.

One student finds a shrike-killed juvenile Desert Iguana--an impressive find, nonetheless. 

Extra points for that student.

Your wife finds a FTHL, in its typical sand-diving cryptic pose. 

You call over your students to see if they can see the lizard too.

Your six-year-old highly observant daughter sees the lizard right off,

while others are still looking in various directions.

She eventually points it out to some of them.

After ooing and aahing over the cute lizard, and letting the students take photos, you let it go.

You find a couple more lizards, note the 3-4 students who seem to have field crew potential, and bring the field trip to a close. Besides, it's starting to get a little hot by 10:00 a.m.

How to Process a Sidewinder

*Warning: Do NOT try this on your own at home.

Only do it with experienced rattlesnake biologists.*

Here we present a tutorial on how to process a sidewinder, courtesy of Matt Goode and Mickey Parker.

1) Catch a sidewinder without getting bit. (That can be fodder for another tutorial sometime...)

2) Bring it back to the field station without getting bit. (Does this place bring back memories, Chris G.?)

3) Tube it without getting bit. This involves taking it out of the bag in which it was being kept previously since its capture. With snake tongs in one hand, and a tube in the other, guide the snake into the tube. Once it has crawled into the tube about 1/3 of its body length, drop the tongs and grab the end of the tube along with the snake body.

4) Anesthetize the sidewinder. Sorry, I don't have photos of this, but it involves putting anesthetic on a cotton ball and putting the tubed snake and cotton ball inside of a larger tube and closing off the end. After about 20 minutes, the snake should be asleep.

5) Remove the snake and commence with measuring and weighing. These guys took body and head measurements.

6) Mark the snake for future visual identification. This is done by painting the rattle, following a pattern. This snake is # 001. The paint lasts for several months.

7) Pit-tag the snake for permanent identification. This involves inserting a microchip ID tag with a 12-digit number that is read by a scanner.

8) Insert a radio transmitter if you are tracking the animal. In this case, they are not doing telemetry, so it wasn't radio-tagged.

9) Take cool photos and admire the awesomeness of this creature.

10) Intubate to give it more oxygen to speed up recovery from the anesthetic.

11) Rebag the snake and release it where it was captured without getting bit.

If you do happen to get bit, find another tutorial on how to treat snakebite.

The Phoenix Zoo

After Megan's award ceremony, we spent the remainder of the day at the Phoenix Zoo. 

We saw cheetahs,

komodo dragons,

otters,

 

a spectacled bear, etc.

We ate lunch.

 We fed giraffes,

 

rode camels,

and brushed goats.

 We sat on a frog,

a komodo dragon,

 

and a horned lizard

(where D-boy finally lost it and threw a screaming fit).

 

And here is a cool close-up of zebra skin that we didn't know where to fit in otherwise:

 

At the end of the day, the parents were miraculously still alive (and smiling).

An ice cream treat helped the 3-hour return drive home go smoother.