The Desert Year

[haidivolume]

GREAT

[yuccahead]

I've got a few wildlife photos from a recent 6 day canoe trip down the Colorado River, but not a big variety. Great Blue Herons and Canada Geese were the most easily seen birds. We heard a lot of song birds singing from the thick tamarisk along the banks but they were impossible to find. Spotting herons and trying to drift slowly and quietly near them before they flew away was our daily challenge. Wet sand and mudflats were crisscrossed with heron and Canada Goose tracks.

Great Blue Herons




Canada Geese


Heron & C. Geese tracks



After arriving at one camp we were cleaning out the canoe and my wife found a red spotted toad had stowed away with us.


We returned him to the river and he seemed to be fine as a frogs hair.

[yuccahead]

We did come across one unusual bird, a pure white goose or something similar,,,possibly a snow goose? I don't know for sure but we could see it for a 1/4 mile and tried to approach slowly.




Many beaches had plenty of beaver sign, drags, tracks and chewed sticks. One muddy canyon mouth had muledeer and gray fox tracks. We landede at one sandbar for a break and found very fresh river otter tracks.
Otter tracks




Raven were also fairly common and these two watched us from a nearby tree one morning as we were tearing down camp and loading the canoe. They were on the sand looking for scraps before we even pushed off.

[reptilist]

The white bird looks to me to be a great egret!
Cool stuff Rick!

[yuccahead]

The white bird looks to me to be a great egret!
Cool stuff Rick!

An egret, thanks rep. I looked it up and from the Sibley guide it appears that the Snowy egret has orange feet and black legs. Thanks for the ID, another bird for the list this year!

[reptilist]

Snowy Egret! Better yet!

[yuccahead]

I took a walk up at Arches this morning looking for potholes that might still have some water in them just to see what might be living in or around them these days. I found a few and as I crouched down near one of them a bit of movement caught my eye and I saw a small snake on a ledge above the water, deep in the shade. He was about 14" long and not much thicker than a pencil.




I didn't know what it was but I returned about a 1/2 hour later and he was out of the pothole in the sun just hanging out.


I looked it up when I got home and it appears to be a Blackneck garter snake (Thamnophis cyrtopsis) and he was doing just what the guide said he does...
"Blackneck garter snakes are aquatic habitat specialists, rarely traveling far from water.
In summer, when prey is restricted to only a few deep pools, the snakes use a "sit & wait" method to obtain active frogs and tadpoles." Cool.

This guy pretty much insisted that I get a photo, I nearly stepped on him and he never budged. Maybe reptilist can help with an ID.

[reptilist]

Looks like a black necked garter snake to me too.
I'll get back to you on the liz.

[Jerry Feldner]

100% on the Garter. However, the little lizard may be difficult to ID without pics of the belly, side, etc. Suffice it to say, it is Sceloporus species.

[yuccahead]

100% on the Garter. However, the little lizard may be difficult to ID without pics of the belly, side, etc. Suffice it to say, it is Sceloporus species.

Well, I was kind of thinking that, but the head was a kind of bluish-greenish color, more than the photo shows if that helps.