WhitePaaws

A picture of a Speckled Rattlesnake coiled under a brush. This individual is brown-ish/red-ish with some slightly darker stripping on their back.

A picture of a Speckled Rattlesnake coiled under a rock. This individual is brown-ish/yellow-ish with their characteristic stripes on their body.

A picture of a Speckled Rattlesnake coiled between some rocks. Decently red individual with the striping although this one exhibits some aberrant striping in the upper part of their body.

A picture of a Speckled Rattlesnake coiled over some gravel rocks. Light brown-almost gray. with darker striping, very pretty.

A few Speckled Rattlesnakes found during some work surveys during the past few weeks. Pretty cool to be crossing paths with this beautiful species so frequently. #herps 🐍

Thank you!!

A picture of a Gila Monster. This lizard was tucked in a corner, you can see the black and orange coloration. Big snout, very sharp claws.

Absolutely incredible find from this week! A Gila Monster spotted by one of my coworkers at work. A species I really wanted to see yet I didn't think I would. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with me, so this is the best picture I got, but still, what a moment to be alive! #herps 🦎

I noticed that I've started a lot of my posts with "here's my lifer" lol well I hope that doesn't stop anytime soon because I hope to find many more before I have to go back east later in the year.

A picture of a Greater Short-horned Lizard posing over sand. This species is gray-ish with splotches or red and black throughout their body. They are decently spiny on the sides of the belly and have small horns behind the head.

Here's my lifer Greater Short-horned Lizard I found crossing a trail yesterday morning! This one was definitely not on my bingo card. They aren't uncommon per se but I didn't realize they could be found where I was at, so I was really happy with this encounter! #herps 🦎

Maybe going to hike while feeling a bit sick wasn't the greatest idea lol although I found some cool stuff, I'll post it tomorrow!

A picture of a Couch's Spadefoot found on a concrete road. This species is pretty brown/yellow with big eyes. They are also very round.

Here's my lifer Couch's Spadefoot I road cruised last week in an otherwise very slow night. Definitely my top amphibian target while out here in Arizona and genuinely didn't expect to find one when it hadn't really rained much. #herps 🐸

A close up picture of a Desert Tortoise. This individual is covered in dust so they are light brown but otherwise would be gray. Their iris is yellow and pupil is black.

Desert Tortoise! Love these guys! #herps 🐢

A picture of a Great Basin Collared Lizard posing on a rock in the shade. This species is yellow-ish with lots of white spots on their back. They have a "collar" under their neck, this "collar" has two black stripes and a white stripe in the center of the two black stripes.

Here's my lifer Great Basin Collared Lizard found during the morning while hiking the desert! Collared Lizards were one of my main targets while I'm out here in Arizona, so I'm super happy to have seen this beauty! #herps 🦎

I’ve heard the remake is actually pretty decent, kinda wanna get it once it goes on sale.

A picture of a Mojave Rattlesnake coiled over sand and some braches. This snake is green-ish/yellow-ish with some diamond-shaped patters on their back. You can differentiate from Diamondback Rattlesnakes because this species has 2 big scales between their eyes.

Stunner of a Mojave Rattlesnake found on an early morning enjoying the morning sun in the desert! #herps 🐍

A picture of a Ring-necked Snake posing over a rock. This snakes dorsal scales are gray-ish while their belly is mostly yellow, except near the tail where they become orange. This snake has the classic yellow ring on their neck.

Here's a stunning Ring-necked Snake my friend @dylwingo.bsky.social and I found crossing a trail in the outskirts of Phoenix yesterday! It's crazy how different this species is here compared to the east coast, so much bigger and much more color. #herps 🐍

I’m really looking forward to experiencing it for the first time!

A front facing picture of a Sonoran Desert Toad. This species has some red-ish eyes with black pupils. Their belly is white-ish and their back is very light brown.

A very chunky Sonoran Desert Toad I found on the road very late last night! Another lifer for me! #herps 🐸

A picture of a Shovelnose (mojave/resplendent?) Snake found crawling on some rocks. This snake is yellow with black bands along their body.

Shovelnose Snake on the crawl! I love this species they are soooo pretty! #herps 🐍

A picture of a Western Diamondback Rattlesnake. You can see the head of the snake on the left side and part of the body below. This snake has different shades of mainly brown and gray. This is a little bit of a cave so you can see the blurry top of the cave and some rocks near the front.

First snake in Arizona! This stunning Western Diamondback Rattlesnake was hanging out near the entrance of a deep shelter. #herps 🐍

A picture of a Coal Skink female guarding her eggs. The lizard is very brown with a darker brown stripe going through her lateral scales. The eggs are oval shaped and white. The rest of the picture shows wet soil.

The week before leaving Tennessee I found my lifer Coal Skink! This is a ridiculously difficult species of lizard to find in TN, and I'm really fortunate to have seen one and guarding her nest no less! #herps 🦎

Just drove 25 hours over the past two days to make it to Arizona. Gonna be here until November working on a pretty neat field work project! I’m super excited for this opportunity!

Yeah! I upload some of my stuff in there. Although for TN rare records I just go directly to the person who manages the TN Herp Atlas database and report it with them :)

A picture of a Southeastern Crowned Snake posing over some sand/rocks. This species is brown and has a black head and a black stripe just below their head.

Kind of a baffling find, a Southeastern Crowned Snake found in West TN in a county where I don't think they have been reported yet. This species is pretty tough to find especially out of season like this one. Pretty awesome! #herps 🐍

💙

Those are some very kind words. I appreciate it a lot, thank you 💙

Sometimes I ask myself why do I even bother working in conservation, no one cares. But then I think of the animals, the plants, and all living things, THEY care and they are worth fighting for.

Every time that I see environmental news this year I get so depressed, it’s always something negative and it makes me feel so powerless.

A picture of a Gray Ratnsnake found on the road. This snake is very close to being fully black on their back and then they have some white on their venter.

A cute Gray Ratsnake I found on the road right before it started storming super hard. This snake was really dark, I generally don't see them so pattern-less in Middle Tennessee. Pretty cool! #herps 🐍

emote commission!!
[ #art #furryart #owedart #emotes #furryemotes ]

Sounds like a good plan! Marshy areas and swamps are my favorite for herping.

A picture of an Eastern Box Turtle found on top of leaf litter. This turtle is has a very orange face and red eyes. Carapace is yellow with black.

An Eastern Box Turtle found on a paved section of a trail. This turtle has a very yellow carapace and black and yellow face. Red eyes.

An Eastern Box Turtle found over some wet leaf litter, this turtle's carapace is yellow and black and the face is also yellow and black with brown eyes. Front legs are yellow.

A few Eastern Box Turtles I found in a hike earlier this week! These guys have been super active this year with how much it has rained in the past month or so, pretty sweet to be seeing so many of them! #herps 🐢

That’s disappointing.

A picture of an Eastern Hognose Snake coiled over some moss and grass. This snake is yellow-ish with big dark brown stripes and markings. Their eyes are blue since they were just about to go into shed.

Another picture of an Eastern Hognose Snake coiled over some moss and grass. This one's a different angle.

Eastern Hognose Snake (Heterodon platirhinos)

I went for a quick afternoon hike while I was in Maryland yesterday and couldn't have asked for a better find!!! These guys love to burrow so they can be pretty tough to come by, this is only my second one ever, so I'm very happy!! #herps 🐍