Red-diamond Rattlesnake

While helping with a vegetation survey last week one of the biologists let out a cry as he nearly stepped on this beautiful Red-diamond Rattlesnake. Luckily it was very early in the morning and the snake was too cold to react much. I included a pic of the actual vegetation survey.

Tick

I have always been lucky when it comes to ticks. I rarely find them on me while others will have many. Ticks have been known to prefer one person over another. Unfortunately I do find them on occassion. This guy I found in one of my socks. I always check myself carefully before coming home.

Tarantula

I guess watering is not always boring. While checking the irrigation lines I found this male tarantula wandering through our restoration site. It is common for males to wander around this time of the year looking for females. California species are hard to ID but I think its Aphonopelma iodius.

Scorpions

When we are trapping for reptiles we often catch uninvited guests. The two species of scorpions we caught this week are the Arizona Striped Scorpion, and the California Common Scorpion.

Osprey

We recently put up an Osprey platform hoping we could attract some to breed in our wetlands. We only had to wait a few months. Today we had 3 flying in the area and eventually one landed on the platform and perched on it for hours calling to the others. We think this bird is a female. Unfortunately it is VERY early for them to be thinking about breeding. We can only hope they stick around through the winter. This platform is about 20 feet high and overlooks our largest pond. They feed exclusively on fish.

Rodents

When we are trapping for reptiles we often get an assortment of rodents in the traps. Here we have a shrew (they bite), a deermouse, and a pocketmouse. The shrew is easy to spot with its long nose. We had to keep him in the bag since they can be aggressive. We place them in the bag to weigh them. After we have identified and measured them they were placed safely in a nearby bush.

Lizards

Working at our herp array at Lake Perris we caught some interesting specimens. Here is a Western Banded Gecko and a Orange-throated Whiptail.