Monday I decided to take my family over to Silver City ,or to better say what's left of it. After struggling to get everyone ready ( I'm the early bird in the family) we were on our way on an adventure. After a 40 minute drive we parked the truck at our destination.
I spent a few minutes with my rug rats setting up ant falls to collect harvester ants for some lizards at home. My wife and the youngest spent time looking for short horned lizards. It was a race to see who could find the first one. There were plenty of sage lizards around but being quite warm outside they were hard to catch while pushing a stroller around the hills.
It's fun spending time with my family doing the things I used to do as a kid. I can't wait for my boys to get a little bigger so I can teach them more about my hobbies.
I got to an area where the ground cover was not so dense, and after much searching found a small horned toad. As I was taking it to the boys I notice another yet larger one skuttle under a small bush so I caught that one as well.
It's always a pleasure to take my family on herping trips.
I spent a few minutes with my rug rats setting up ant falls to collect harvester ants for some lizards at home. My wife and the youngest spent time looking for short horned lizards. It was a race to see who could find the first one. There were plenty of sage lizards around but being quite warm outside they were hard to catch while pushing a stroller around the hills.
It's fun spending time with my family doing the things I used to do as a kid. I can't wait for my boys to get a little bigger so I can teach them more about my hobbies.
I got to an area where the ground cover was not so dense, and after much searching found a small horned toad. As I was taking it to the boys I notice another yet larger one skuttle under a small bush so I caught that one as well.
I hurried down to my wife to show her, then we drove the truck up to the location where I had been finding them(I really wanted to give my wife the opportunity to find one as well) after searching for a half hour or so our luck wasn't showing so she headed to the truck with the boys. After getting them situated I headed down a sandy slope for one more try. Something moving caught my eye so I turned to see a small burrow with a tarantula sitting in it, I caught that then showed it to my wife who has never seen a live wild tarantula. I then head back to an area to turn some boards over but as I stooped down to lift one I noticed a little bit of a coil from a snake poking out, I quickly identified it as a greatbasin rattler so I headed back to the truck for the camera and a shovel to move the board so I could take some pictures. The snake had some nice colors to it and a nice sized rattle as well (around 11parts to it) . After taking a few shots I headed back to the truck.
That was the end of that York adventure. It's always a pleasure to take my family on herping trips.
You seem to be the expert on lizards and snakes. I haven't seen a tarantula in Utah. Would be cool to find one.
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