arrowheadspiketail58's Favorites

I was hiking and was using my hiking stick. This poor bird was so camouflaged and sitting on the ground in the middle of a canyon at 3:45pm. My hiking stick either hit he back end of the bird or was really close to it and the bird made a noise so I turned around to see what had happened. The bird continued to sit there with its eyes closed. I used my hiking stick to gently touch the bird on the tail. It then got up and flew away normally! Hopefully everything was ok with it, since it was out in broad daylight like that.

Seen shortly after passing three DOR individuals in short succession. Snake moved off of road after photos were taken.
GIF of movement included.

A couple months ago I drove by this nest, it is way up high in a cottonwood tree, the rest of the tree has lots of leaves except the branches the nest is on. I didn’t see any birds at the nest last time. Today was different though! Saw 2 babies and the adult hawk. Super cool to see them! Location is in the Pahrump town with lots of traffic, etc.

First sidewinder of the season I’ve seen. Right on the road in front of my house. Unfortunately it looks like it might have been knicked by a vehicle or maybe a coyote or something. Two small blood spots on top of its neck and body. A friend moved it into the bushes with snake tongs and it appeared lively again, otherwise it had been resting on the same spot in the road for about 5-10 minutes moving very slowly. Approximately 78 degrees at 7:45pm and breezy. Sun just set around 7pm. Summer 2020 in Death Valley I saw somewhere around 30 sidewinders alive or roadkilled…Summer 2021 I didn’t count the roadkilled ones but I saw way less sidewinders. Alive, maybe 3-4. Hopefully this summer I will see more sidewinders! Seeing one is March is a good sign…

84 degrees at 1:26pm. My first snake sighting of 2022! S/he did not like their photo taken. Hissed, rattled its tail, opened its mouth at me… It was moving very slowly and soaking up the warm asphault. I waited til it crossed the road to make sure it crossed into the bushes safely.

Yesterday morning (10/5) my dad saw this lizard was stuck on one of the mouse sticky pads in the garage. I was not home at the time, and my dad does not know anything about lizards, to know this was a super cool one! He was able to get it off the sticky pad by picking it off and let it free. Today (10/6) my dad saw the lizard under my parked car tire and he didn’t know it was the same one. He just said, “come look at this lizard!” I got a close look at it and he told me what happened yesterday, and upon closer look I could see the lizard had glue on 2 of its legs, completely sticking to its body. But it was alive. So I called my sister out to help me and we used olive oil to rub it on it and keep rubbing it on it then rinsed it with water a couple times. At first, I was too scared to pick it up so I was just pouring the olive oil on it while it sat there. It bit me twice when I tried picking it up. Finally, it stopped biting and it was calm and cool as a cucumber. It let me run my hand all over its body and down its tail, it let me scrub under its chin, and while I did that it closed its eyes like it felt really good. My sister was even able to pick the sticky stuff off of it with no gloves on and with her long nails and the lizard didn’t care. I could also tell it was getting stronger and stronger the more glue we got off it. It was moving a little more in my hand and perking its head up. All legs were moving just fine despite 2 being glued to its body. I would rubbed it with one hand and let it walk onto my other hand while rubbing it. We spent a good 1 hour 45 minutes rinsing it off. It was really cool to feel the lizard and basically do whatever with it, it let us do whatever we wanted with it. It was like it knew it was being healed. It never tried escaping while we picked/scrubbed the glue off. When we poured water over its back, it didn’t even squirm or move, it was like he really liked it! And he kept his head up the whole time, very strong, not like he was weak and succumbing to what we were doing. I think he really appreciated it. I also had a layer of olive oil in a small aquarium and soaked him in that. And both legs that were glued looked fantastic when we were done with it. You can see in the one close-up it’s chin is clean and it’s front feet are unglued and freed. I don’t believe that any cuts, or missing scales/fingers occurred when my dad picked it off. To me, the outside of it looked in really good shape. After one last rinse with water, I set it back by my car and it went under the tire again. Hopefully it will be okay. And hopefully my dad will stop using mouse sticky pads. We finished cleaning it up at around 5pm and I went outside at 6:55pm and he was no longer under the tire.

“96 degrees” on my vehicle’s temperature gauge, at 8:37pm. (Approx 4,000 feet elevation) Felt cooler than that. I think my temp gauge was off. I have seen 3 variable groundsnakes in this area now, 2 this week and 1 last summer. All were different colors. The first one was black and orange banded with some white, the second was white and striped with orange, and now this one, white with orange bands. Really awesome! Hence the name “variable” haha.

94 degrees at 9:24pm and yesterday there was rain in this area....Last summer I saw so many baby sidewinders while driving around, this summer I haven’t seen any except this is the first one. Last spring was pretty wet, then the summer saw zero monsoons. But lots of baby sidewinders. Now this spring 2021 was very dry, but DV has had a couple monsoons the last few weeks. Rattlesnakes give birth in the last summer right? Maybe I was just seeing the babies later in the summer. Hope to keep seeing them!

Bobcat (Lynx rufus)

5 March 2021
Avondale Park
Denton, Denton County, Texas

Arriving at home our neighbors across the street alerted us to the presence of a Bobcat in our front porch. On approaching the front door the Bobcat moved to our backyard and the greenbelt provided by Cooper Creek. But before dashing off into the leaf and tree cover downstream it sat for a bit and looked our way in which time we captured a few images.

68-70 degrees at 2:53pm. It was crossing the road so I turned around to go help it. I watched 2 cars drive directly over him and he tumbled around due to the force and air of them driving over him, I’m so glad they did not hit him. This is the first tarantula I’ve ever picked up! I set him down in the direction he was moving, way off the side of the road.

I was driving slow (10 mph) down a dirt road and this owl was either 1) under a bush or 2) in a hole during broad daylight next to the road and I scared it from its home and it flew out. High 80’s to 91 degrees at 4:26pm. 3,500+ feet elevation. No man made structures in this immediate vicinity, so it was definitely under a bush or in a hole. I’ve only seen long-eared owls, great horned owls, barn owls, and burrowing owls before. So this one was my first short eared owl. Pretty neat :)