Southern California, July 2007


I made a trip over to Pasadena (Caltech) to attend a conference the last week in July 2007.

I saw these while on a coffee break:

A mess o' RES.

I also saw this interloper:

Softshell of some sort.

I took one day off and went up to the desert to visit my folks. My dad never was much into reptiles, but he does get credit for introducing me to them. He showed me a horned lizard in the alley behind our house when I was around five years old. That's my reptile first memory... Nowadays (I'm 41 and he's pushing 80) he enjoys tagging along on my roadcruising exploits. It really provides a great opportunity to just talk.

The conditions:

First live snake:

A gopher.

Soaking some heat:

'winder.

Next:

A medium-sized longnose.

We ventured up in the Sierras where it had rained just a tad earlier in the day. Thus, several of these were seen:

California Toad.

We also came across this fella:

li'l oreganus.

On the way home, back in the desert, we saw the last herp of the night:

Coleonyx.

So we wound up seeing a few of the more common critters the area has to offer. Since I don't get to see the desert critters very often, they are always a pleasure to see. My dad and I also got to catch up with each other. A quality evening in the field, in more ways than one.