Sneaking up on tiny fish
Not all ring-necked snakes have a ring on their neck.
Did not expect to see this. Among many red-eared sliders, I saw what looks like a snapping turtle. Only the head was visible, the body was obscured by turbid water. The turtle swam a bit and was part of a congregation of sliders expecting to be fed.
Magical golden one. Our ticket to the lizard factory?
Observed by Emmett Partland
Found in swimming pool
Large skin in dry creek m
Stowaway from a shipment of tropical plants; not naturally occurring in the area.
Was thinking this was the Western yellow-bellied racer but the belly is not yellow...perhaps a juvenile? Scales underneath looked like light blues and pinks.
Found in the wild in a rural area.
Missing a significant part of its posterior end, poor thing. Managed to crawl off into the bushes.
Eating a rattlesnake
Is it sticking its tongue out at me?
Found dead on the side of a logging road.
Part of my explorations in support of my write-up on the effort to save the Sierra Nevada Yellow-legged Frog, Shasta Lake's biodiversity, and other endangered amphibians of northern California.
https://bangkokherps.wordpress.com/2019/09/05/california-waters-frogs-of-the-frozen-reaches/
A little confused because we have seen several coral snakes in the yard but the banding pattern here does not show clear red bands although there is some on the underside.
Had a full length extra tail and another one partially grown (trifurcation). Found brumating under a wooden board
Climbing on a Madrone tree
Se encontró al animal debajo de una piedra, este tenia un nivel de opacado iridescente semejante a aquel demostrado por los escamosos antes de una muda.
Probably a melanistic one. The tongue was black. I couldn’t get a great look at the belly but it seemed orange-red. It was very fast in getting away from me as I attempted to take a photo!
Although this looked like a beautifully choreographed mating dance, it is actually a form of ritual combat between two males, usually occurring in view of a female--she may have stayed behind the rock out of my sight. It had been going on for nearly 5 minutes when I left.
Male/male fight: 2 well matched males battle for more than 15 minutes. I did not stay to see the end of their competition, or if either got injured. They circled each other and moved in side by side. One would bite the other's leg, or tail and the bitten lizard would spin to try to dislodge the biter. Link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjeVkN5rfgo
California Red-sided Gartersnake or a San Francisco Gartersnake
Surprising find in a slough within the stagnant marsh. Not a species I recognize from this watershed! A carp, perhaps?
In the same debris pile as a False Tarantula. Snake appeared to be about to shed. I did not pick it up.
Eastern Kingsnake
king snake crushing a fence lizard on Bayview Trail by SF Bay in Coyote Hills Regional Park midday 2021 May 28
I observed this turtle yesterday while looking over the side of the concrete bridge at Lake Merced. I was watching a heron catch a fish and saw this turtle slow come up for air. It stayed at the surface for quite sometime and I was able to grab a few photos (attached). I am fairly certain this is a snapping turtle that was released.
I've been wanting to see this turtle for so long and I finally got to today. Obviously it's something someone released here at some point (supposedly 15-20 years ago, but it's all hearsay) but still super rad.
On Half Moon Bay Pelagic Trip. Rough GPS cords. based on eBird checklist and the time of the photo.
Found in mountain lake presidio by @mangos
Feeding on recently deceased Canadian goose.
Rattlesnake tail.
(Ed R. Levin County Park)
Large turtle in the lake. Species according to what is named under California Herps.
cool pattern
Roadkill.
This snake was about 5 ft. long, swimming in the channel.
(Shoreline)
Each little dot is a head. Literally hundreds in this tiny pond, from tiny hatchlings to enormous adults. Were observed feeding on a lot of insects at the surface and trying to scrape some sort of periphyton off the rocks. Seems like such a density in such an environment is entirely unsustainable over the summer/dry season. Rana draytonii and thamnophis atratus also present
Was being eaten by an owl, and was dropped. Record also entered in HerpMapper.org.
first confirmation of reproduction of a reintroduced population (2015). welcome the first born and bred generation of mountain lake SF western pond turtle in many many (many?) decades
this big turtle was found by Lake Elizabeth on 2018 Nov 21, but it is not native, and is presumably an abandoned pet