Early June rainstorm night hike

We have been exceptionally blessed this year with excellent herping weather. I just wish that I had more time available that I could put towards field herping. Life is continually busier and filled with additional responsibilities (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing). This spring was very mild, with low temperatures throughout the spring and into the month of June. In fact, I was camping in snow in Arizona in the middle of May!

Following some rainstorms (the next day or two after the storm), I went out with a group of regular herping friends to a local spot. We didn’t find large numbers of herps, but did find two species that up until that point I had never encountered at our chosen location.

The first snake of the evening was this blind snake, also commonly called thread snakes.

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I don’t see these snakes all too often, unless you count all of the blind snakes that I find in my local neighborhood due to the irrigation systems that we have in my old 1960’s neighborhood. They are quite small, and are most easily detected by their shiny scales. Light reflects very well off of their scales, making them somewhat easier to see than they otherwise might be.

Not too long afterwards, we also found this pretty little banded sand snake. These snakes are likely very common in the habitats that they inhabit. For me, though, it had been over 20 years since the last time that I found this species in the wild. Only recently, though, have I again begun to spend significant amounts of time herping in the areas in which these snakes might be found.

banded sand snake

Thats pretty much it! A short little local trip is always successful when you night hike a few snakes!