We went out fishing to Alamo Lake this past saturday. On the way there, we drove past a very speedy red coachwhip zipping across the highway! We also saw a nice desert iguana as it skirted past us at top speed while driving on the desert roads. After our unsuccessful fishing attempts, we started looking for critters at dusk. We did not see any reptile life until all of the light was gone from the skies. Temperatures began to drop quickly, going from the upper 80’s to about 70 degrees in about an hours worth of time and I began to doubt if we would see anything at all. Then, we came across our first snake of the evening, a very healthy small adult Mojave Rattlesnake:

I let my son pick it up with our large snake stick with much supervision. It was his first attempt and I think he really enjoyed it. He was very careful and aware and I helped him with both of my hands on the snake stick as well.

We continued on and it was a long time before coming across anything else. We eventually did come across a Giant Desert Hairy Scorpion, which my oldest daughter enjoyed finding. They really are quite large with the one we found probably measuring a total of 5 inches including tail.

I was really hoping that we would find a sidewinder and that I could show my kids this unique rattlesnake and its “sidewinding” motion of movement, as well as the horns that are above each of their eyes. Luckily for us, just before calling it quits, we did find a small adult: