Saguaro (Carnegiea gigantea)

14 June 2017
Madera Canyon – Santa Rita Mountains
Coronado National Forest
Madera Canyon Road
Madera Canyon, Arizona 85614

The approach to Madera Canyon by way of the existing roads is populated extensively with Saguaro...

Here's a fun observation that's a real "oldie but goodie" (from 42 years ago, this month)! This is me as a 15 year old kid with my best friend/cousin Pete, and my VERY FIRST Northern Pine Snake! I can remember the thrill of that sight almost like it was yesterday - as it crawled right out in front of me as we hiked along an old abandoned railroad bed towards the forgotten town of Crossley, where the great Carl Kauffeld himself had written of his own adventures in his excellent, classic work published in 1957 "Snakes and Snake Hunting", in Chapter IV - "Crossley Pines and Corns". Fortunately, this pristine and wonderful piece of Pine Barrens habitat, its unique ecology, and "Herpetological History" is now a protected 3,000 acre preserve managed/monitored by the NJ Natural Lands Trust, to be experienced and enjoyed by naturalists and researchers of every interest forever.

Texas Tortoise (Gopherus berlandieri)

25 November 2017
Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park
2800 S. Bentsen Palm Dr.
Mission, Hidalgo County, Texas 78572

This Texas Tortoise was observed walking on the grass toward a partially completed hole in the ground at the base of an old tree stump. As it saw us approach it retreated and walked toward its halfway dug hole in the ground. It may have been feeding on the grass nearby when it first caught sight of us approaching.

Potawatomi Trail along Pickerel Lake from launch to 1st bridge.

This is FAST GROWING! A week ago it was so small/short that I wasn't even sure what it was this based on my photos. Same shot a week earlier:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/37521923

Gravid female observed during a presence/absence survey for NJ State Endangered and Threatened species on a large private land holding. This particular tract of land was bordered to the Northwest by a large State Forest, and encompassed some amazing habitat for this species - see additional photos. The environmentally-minded property owner was thrilled at the discovery - must be nice to have your "very own" Timber den, right? : )

Everybody's heard of "Walking with Dinosaurs" - how about "Swimming with Salamanders"? haha! Part of an awesome field day with my cousin Pete 30-some years ago - found about 15 of these amazing creatures in all growth stages, saw Long-tailed Salamanders, Milksnakes, Wood Turtles - and even saved a beautiful black-phase Timber Rattler from a miserable fate at the hands of two trout fishermen (of the "only good snake is a *dead* snake" mentality!). Good times! Happy Valentine's Day to all the lovely Ladies of iNaturalist!

This lovely, proud "Mother" was discovered trapped in the rainwater-filled bucket of a large front-end loader on a construction site adjacent to a NJDEP-sanctioned Northern Pinesnake monitoring project. The construction workers thoughtfully called my attention to the situation (rather than harming the distressed reptile), so I went to the location to "save" her from her predicament. Upon first seeing her, I immediately noticed she was extremely gravid - with an abnormally large mass just above the vent, and somewhat weakened from her ordeal. I brought her to our site lab/trailer for closer examination, and determined that she was "egg-bound" - a condition that occasionally plagues oviparous snakes in which an egg is simply too large to pass normally, with the end generally resulting in the death of both the female and her "un-born/hatched" young. I aspirated the oversized, infertile "problem" egg w/a large gauge hypodermic needle, which allowed her to pass the collapsed remnant somewhat normally, and set her up in a quiet corner of the lab in a small aquarium with a moss-filled hide box in which she could rest. 3 days later I was thrilled to see my little "patient" proudly coiled around 4 perfect, fertile eggs! The now-healthy "mom" was released in a nearby habitat where others of her species had been regularly observed, and after 72 days of incubation I was happy to release her four healthy kids at the same new location (photo #2). Truly a story with a happy ending!

What a wonderful field trip after the Citizen Science conference! Megan from the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences led a nice ephemeral wildflower walk, and we saw some amazing organisms. Great fun!

My cuz Pete and I got bored from the tedious effort of removing dozens of these cuddly little bloodsuckers from an otherwise happy and healthy Wood Turtle (Glyptemys insculpta) study population in scenic Sussex County, NJ - so we decided to take a break, and have a few laughs with our "recently-evicted" parasitic pals!