Sam and I were out for our normal walk this morning and I saw this. This photo was taken from about waist high and is pretty much what I see. What do you see?
Oh, really? Right there in the red box is a Horned Toad. A fairly common small lizard around here.
I knew he was dead because he didn't scurry away before I got there.
He died standing and on the lookout. It's almost for certain that a sidewinder got him, but I couldn't see any marks on him. I'm guessing that he moved just far enough that the snake lost him and couldn't find him to eat. I touched him and rigor hadn't set in yet, it was a quite recent death.
Can you see the Sidewinder? I upped the contrast on this one so you have a chance of seeing what I see. Take a look at the next frame and I'll point out some things.
You can see a few tracks indicated by the arrows and where they stop in the box is a sidewinder in hunting mode. Coiled and sunk down in the sand. They actually vibrate their whole body to sink down into the sand sometimes with noting showing above ground but their eyes. Pretty hard to see them, it is way in your best interest to pay attention on the desert.
All these sidewinder pictures are a year old. I haven't said much, but the sidewinder population is WAY down this year for unknown reasons. I suppose it could be Covid 19 because I have hardly seen any tracks all year and they normally come out of their burrows in March. 2020 has been a bad year for sidewinders in my part of the world too.
See the snake? You know what to look for now.
Here is a crop of the same photo. The snake is right in the center of the frame.
I have good news for the ecology of the desert. I saw at least 6 sets of sidewinder tracks this morning on our walk. 4 adult snakes, a juvenile and a baby less than 6 inches long. Looks to me like they are going to come back just fine.
All words and photos in this post are mine. For better or worse. Photos of the snakes taken with Iphone 6plus and the pictures of the Horned Toad with an Apple SE.
You want some really cool stuff? Check these authors, they will not disappoint.
