How To Impress Kevin

April saw this Coachwhip while out biomonitoring on the construction site and knew that Kevin would be disappointed in her if she didn't catch it. So, she braved the nasty temperamental nature of the snake, grabbed it, and survived the multiple bite wounds. It did draw blood. And, yes, Kevin was impressed.

She also wanted to show it to our Homeschool Co-op Group which is currently studying Desert Ecology. We won't keep it for too long, as Coachwhips don't make good pets. They like to move fast and don't appreciate the confinement of a cage.

The Lizard Project Continues...

We have been training new personnel and have a fairly large crew for this summer's horned lizard work. The UAZ folks want to do intensive Mark-Recapture surveys before construction for the airstrip begins later this summer. In addition to their group of 6-7 people, we hired a "local" crew, consisting of Robbie, Ryan, Arthur (he's almost local because he's been here before several times), and Genifer (she's local because she was born and raised here even though she's been living away for the past several years, plus she worked for us 7 years ago).

These pictures show how much fun this job is.

Here we have tracks of a large snake.

Snakes are cool.

This lizard is a survivor!

Note that it is missing most of its tail.

Very fresh FTHL tracks--note the distinct body impression

Genifer is taking data on this lizard.

"The Boys" have bonded over this experience. Robbie and Arthur first bonded when Robbie and his wife rescued Arthur from the Greyhound Bus Station in Phoenix, where he was stuck due to a broken-down bus, but that is another story in itself and must be told by Arthur himself.

Robbie loves his lizards!

Ryan likes to catch lizards too, and he is a tad competitive.

So we all get together in the wee morning hours and drive out to the study site to start our surveys as the sun rises. Getting paid to catch lizards is a pretty good job.

What We've Been Doing Lately...

 Zach broke yet another one of our green chairs. 

We're going to run out of chairs if he keeps this up!

 

Also, we have some great visitors staying at our house!

Arthur W. and Genifer L. came to town just to do FTHL surveys with us.

Naturally, we took them to play in the desert for fun the first chance we got.

 

Dallin won't ride in the backpack anymore,

but he'll accept a shoulder ride.

 

 One morning, Ian found a ground snake in our front yard!

It was very beautiful.

On the 12th, our friend Jesse M. (USU alumni) and colleagues stopped by on their way to collect rattlesnakes in the Tinajas Altas. We haven't seen Jesse for years--he remembered Megan as a toddler. They joined us for a float trip down the Colorado River with Arthur and the Horrocks family, but we couldn't take photos since we don't have a waterproof camera, so you'll all just have to imagine what we looked like.

Before the float trip, they showed us some rattlesnakes they already had in their cooler.

 

They tubed the snakes, and we could touch them and admire their rattles.

 Kiki likes her perch.

Megan earned this cake as a trade for making a photo op for the Horrock's family reunion. They were planning a western theme, so she drew a cowboy with a cut-out hole in the head for the children to put their faces into for photos. Luckily for us, Megan shared some of the cake.

Erin got stung by a bee when she was out swimming. 

Usually she doesn't have much of a reaction, but this time it swelled up for a day.

Happy Father's Day to our favorite father!!!
We celebrated with his usual applesauce cake.

May Desert Trips

  Now is the time to play in the Sonoran desert, before it gets unbearably hot.

April gets to continue radio-tracking FTHL and see giant bombs on occasion.

Our family took the scouts out (again!) for a night trip. Here they are posing by the Mexican border fence with a very nice glossy snake that had been crawling across the road. And although the bulldog picture might be considered graffiti, it's rather artistic in our opinion.

The following night, we took the Horrocks family out so Jacob could complete one of his Cub Scout requirements. We were lucky enough to track a flattail in the dark. Dallin is proudly showing it off.

Porter and Jacob with the horned lizard

Then it was SCORPION CATCHING TIME!!!

And we caught a shovel-nosed snake too! 

All in all, we had a successful evening.

Random Photo Spot

We discovered a rabbit graveyard out on the Goldwater Range (we cheated and followed a group of turkey vultures). Apparently the military traps rabbits in orchards on leased land (that surrounds their bunkers and such) and dumps the bodies out in the desert. Anyone needing a good model for a comparative vertebrate anatomy class can contact us and we could probably get you a nearly complete rabbit skeleton.

One More Desert Outing

We forgot to mention that we've been collecting sidewinders for a locomotion study at Georgia Tech. Our friend Joe came out with some engineers to film sidewinders in the wild and pick up the ones they are taking back. We failed to take photos of him and his group in the desert, but we got one of Ian and his friend, Hyrum, with the shovel-nosed snakes we caught that night!

...and another small sidewinder!

The Sonoran Desert in February

A couple of our hibernating lizards have been found above ground the past couple of weeks. This is probably due to our disturbing them to change transmitters. It has been warm here, however, getting into the high 70's during the day, and the ants have been active.

April dug out T5 to change his transmitter today. He was the only one who had not been disturbed yet out of the 5 tagged FTHLs. Here he is, blinded by the sun which was angled right on his burrow.

 

Ever wonder what happens to helium balloons that are lost or released into the sky? This bright red one added a nice color contrast to the flowering creosote.

 

The Sonoran Desert in Winter

 Lizards are still hibernating, but vegetation has been growing as a result of several Fall rainstorms.

Primroses are in full bloom:

 Some type of desert sunflowers are also blooming:

Purple Sand Verbena (a small, ground flower) is also abundant.

Creosotes, Bur Sage, and Galleta Grasses are greening up.

Abundant vegetation means food for ants,

which equates to food for horned lizards.

2012 should be a good year for the desert critters.