nature photography + herping : 2019

Saturday, October 12, 2019

San Francisco Bay Area

At the end of our great US road trip, we went back to San Francisco. But before flying home to Germany, we stayed a couple of days close to SF. During my work as a naturalist guide in Costa Rica, I met Tony and his wife. At the end of our great night walk back then, we decided to stay in touch and meet again in California.

So now was finally the time to team up for some herping in the Bay Area. Tony showed us different spots to look for animals and we were really successful. Besides cool salamanders and a cute Pacific Ring-necked Snake (Diadophis punctatus amabilis), we found one of the rarest and most beautiful snakes in the world: the San Francisco Gartersnake (Thamnophis sirtalis tetrataenia)! A dream came true, seeing this stunning snake in the wild. After this amazing day in the field, we went to a bar to enjoy a cold beer together. Thank you, Tony! Hopefully we will meet again... in the USA, Costa Rica, Germany or somewhere else.

Ensatina eschscholtzii xanthoptica - Yellow-eyed Ensatina

Batrachoseps attenuatus - California Slender Salamander

Diadophis punctatus amabilis - Pacific Ring-necked Snake

Thamnophis sirtalis tetrataenia - San Francisco Gartersnake

Happy herping team

On the remaining days Samira and me went to the familiar places and also some new ones, to hike in nature and look for animals. We made some further sightings and pictures. On our last day shortly before heading for the airport, I spotted a "hard to see" juvenile Western Yellow-bellied Racer (Coluber constrictor mormon).

Taricha granulosa - Rough-skinned Newt

Thamnophis elegans terrestris - Coast Gartersnake

Thamnophis sirtalis tetrataenia - San Francisco Gartersnake

Pseudacris sierra - Sierran Treefrog

Coluber constrictor mormon - Western Yellow-bellied Racer

Do you see the snake?

Coluber constrictor mormon - Western Yellow-bellied Racer

Our time in the Bay Area was the perfect conclusion of this tour. We are already looking forward to visit the States again one day!

Monday, October 7, 2019

Pinnacles NP

A three hours drive westwards from Sequoia NP brought us to the beautiful Pinnacles National Park. Pinnacles is quite small and by far not as famous as the other "must see national parks" we visited before. It was the perfect stop on our way back to San Francisco and we really enjoyed hiking the trails around the Bear Gulch Reservoir. We saw a stunning Valley Gartersnake (Thamnophis sirtalis fitchi). Thanks to the great protection projects of this NP, the California Red-legged Frog (Rana draytonii) is a common sighting again. Coast Range Fence Lizards (Sceloporus occidentalis bocourtii) are abundant.

Pinnacles National Park

Thamnophis sirtalis fitchi - Valley Gartersnake

Sceloporus occidentalis bocourtii - Coast Range Fence Lizards

Rana draytonii - California Red-legged Frog

Saturday, October 5, 2019

Sequoia NP, Gopher Snake

We rescued this Great Basin Gopher Snake (Pituophis catenifer deserticola) from the quite busy main road close to the Sequoia National Park. Here is a short Video of me talking about that and showing the beautiful snake. Before we released the snake I also seized the opportunity and took a picture.

Pituophis catenifer deserticola - Great Basin Gopher Snake

Sequoia NP

Approximately a six hours drive from Las Vegas towards west brought us to the Sequoia National Park. This park is famous for it's name giving Giant Sequoia Trees. They grow to an average height of 50 - 85 m (164 - 279 ft). We were for sure impressed by these huge trees. Also we were happy to see some animals as well. We even saw a Black Bear, but because of the light condition in the forest during the mid of a sunny day and the long distance, we only got low quality proof shots. It was a very nice experience to observe a bear in the wild anyway.

Sequoiadendron giganteum - Giant Sequoia Trees

Ursus americanus - American Black Bear

Happy Couple with travel mascot "Cosima"

While hiking some trails a bit more off track, we found a cute and nicely colored Wandering Garter Snake (Thamnophis elegans vagrans) baby, some fascinating invertebrates and a Striped Whipsnake (Masticophis taeniatus).

Thamnophis elegans vagrans - Wandering Garter Snake

Wandering Garter Snake - portrait

Danaus plexippus - Monarch, caterpillar

Aphonopelma sp. - Tarantula

Praying Mantis - I don't know the specific ID

Masticophis taeniatus - Striped Whipsnake

Wednesday, October 2, 2019

Valley of Fire State Park

Sin City - Las Vegas... as I mentioned before, I am not a fan of big cities in general. This one for sure is very extreme! Of course it is interesting to see "The Strip" (for a very short amount of time), but I was happy when Samira and I escaped from this place. Less than one hour driving out of the city we reached the beautiful Valley of Fire State Park.

Ammospermophilus leucurus - White-tailed Antelope Squirrel

Calypte costae - Costa’s Hummingbird ?

Sauromalus ater- Chuckwalla

Ovis canadensis nelsoni - Desert Bighorn Sheep

Besides some animals we observed, we mainly enjoyed the fantastic scenery of the Fire Wave Trail. Since there are everywhere signs, saying it is strictly forbidden to be in the park after dark, we took some sunset pictures and rushed back home.

This rock formation reminded me of the Sandcrawler, the Jawas use in Star Wars:

Sandcrawler Rock :-)

Monday, September 30, 2019

Grand Canyon NP

Welcome to Grand Canyon National Park! Super famous and super impressive. The vast landscape is simply incredible. Besides birds we saw some Mule Deer and tons of Rock Squirrels. I had a lot of fun looking for lizards. The weather was sunny, very windy and quite chilly. Especially if you hike far enough from the parking lots / shuttle stations, the trails are way less crowded than we expected.