David's frog

First off--to all the brothers--I need to know if this is a poisonous frog?? If it is we're not keeping it, if it isn't...I'll think about keeping it...maybe... David spotted him while we were in the flower section at Lowes this morning. I told him if he wanted to take it home, he would have to catch it by himself (I wasn't going to touch it). So he crawled under the flower tables and chased it around for a while (it was freezing outside so the frog was kind of slower), trying to get it out in the open. He would touch it to get it to hop, but he was too scared to pick it up. In the meantime, I ran over with the other kids and grabbed a small flower pot. David finally chased it out into the walkway and luckily I got it to hop right into my pot (that's my way of catching stuff). I had to buy the pot but not the frog...the nice clerk said we could keep it. I think we were entertaining all the old people that were there, luckily I didn't see anybody I knew. Oh, and calling all Clark dads and cousins...I need you to train David on the art of reptile catching because I can't.

kinda lame...

(My camera stinks!) But it was exciting for the Gibbens girls!

We found this whip-tale stuck in our garage. It was half dead so I was able to catch it (they're so dang fast!) "It's not dead, ITS ALIVE!" (we should figure out who all has the true Clark thumb.)

Slimy Salamanders

I found two slimy salamanders under a board the other day while I was running. They are actually called Slimy Salamanders because they "exude a slimy substance that is difficult to remove from the hands". They can get as long as 8 inches. I let them go in our front yard under our pine straw bed.

Gotta love random wildlife!

This thing just wandered into our yard yesterday. Crazy!

Actually our long time neighbor Royal has 5 of these. The biggest is seen here, his name is Scampy. He brought him by yesterday and the kids (and I) just loved it. The HOA will love him too, cause he cleared our front yard of weeds in about 20 minutes. Thanks Scampy!!!

Arizona Big Game and Dusty

My brother David and I spent about 3 days in the Galleros Mtns last November for our deer hunt, but don't worry, the only shooting we did was video. Just thought I would share, it was alot of fun to find them and watch.

MULE DEER
We ran into this group the night before and then saw them again when we went back out the next morning. About 5 doe and a yearling.



COUE'S WHITE TAIL DEER
We took a nap under a tree and when we woke up we found this doe and her yearling across the ravine.



ELK
Here's a huge bull elk my brother found last weekend while helping a freind scout for an upcoming hunt.



Dusty
And.... just for fun, here is my brother and I doing some training for Dusty.

Orb it!

I went out in the back yard yesterday and found a web that spanned about 10 feet out from the playhouse and decided that I may need to get the BlackFlag out. I found this Orb Spider under the kids slide. I guess they have the same kind of poison as a black widow, but a lot less potent. So it would not be too bad to get stung and they are not very aggressive.

Night Hike II

Last night after the rain, we went out to see all the wildlife. It was a little cool after the rain, so there were not a lot of snakes, but there were quite a few toads.

We found this little sidewinder pretty early on in the evening.

This guy looked like a little snake crossing the road when we drove by it on the road.

I forgot to eat before I left, fortunately the desert was able to provide some good eatin'!

to find and not to find

Bryan was out looking for something, but instead got a picture of this cloud...I love it.

We don't get many clouds like this often.

I wasn't looking for anything and saw this run across the floor and got a picture of it! UGH! The spider has red eye...zoom in on it.

I was too afraid to get closer than 10ft.

I may have to have Bryan crop it so you can see it.

Spiderphobia...

We found a web on the basketball hoop in the backyard the on Saturday and it was covered with baby spiders. Literally hundreds! So I sprayed some Blackflag spray on them and then the whole area for insurance purposes. We went out on Monday and this is what we found sitting on the top of the base of the hoop. Pretty nasty and creepy. I don't know what kind he was cause he blackened up in the sun over the weekend like a BBQ.

In this picture, the wind blew the spider just a bit right after I took the picture and I almost screamed outloud like a little girl.

Another Box Turtle trying to cross the road

This box turtle almost stepped out into the road in front of me. I had to turn around in the middle of traffic to go back and get him. Cambria and Maya called him Arley again. We have him wandering around in our backyard.

We found a 4 inch grasshopper yesterday. I knocked out the grasshopper and threw it in front of Arley. He devoured the whole thing. Cambria and Maya couldn't believe their eyes.

Anna and David's beetles

Anna and David went camping with Jay over the weekend (it was amazing how quiet it was around here) and this is what they caught. They were expecting to catch horny toads and lizards, but on their hikes they only saw a glimpse of one lizard and a mouse. They were bummed to only come home with two beetles.The home they made for them...see the piece of licorice?

Brandon's catches

This is Bryan writing.

This is our Lepard Geco we saved from the garbage last year.

Brandon found this baby geco on the porch the other night.

He is tiny! He saw this baby spiny while he was running in the evening.

3 minutes away

This is Bryan Posting. Brandon and I went out to the desert near our neighborhood. Of course you can always find a couch in the desert. It was a lizard hotel. We had to get a picture.

We tried to catch this baby wiptail.


This guy kept us running around the couch. Here he is peeking around the corner.

This roadrunner posed for us.

Night Hike

Sorry this is so late. We went on a night hike last weekend with Brandon, Jaxon, Jayden, Gage, Jordan and Me. Some of these pictures got posted on our family blog, but they are not at home until they arrive here...

Jordan shined his black light on him while I took this with the flash turned off. I think it turned out pretty good. This was not a small scorpin.

Nature's Transformers

The fuzzy caterpillar (above) that I brought down from the Rim made himself a cocoon. We forgot about it for a few weeks and this is what emerged:

Helaman's Camp

The Buckeye Stake did the Senior Aaronic trip up on the rim north of Payson. These are some of my findings:

Jayden, I am sorry I did not save this bug for your collection, he would have been awesome.

I have not seen a tadpole this big in a long time. I caught him in Fossil Creek.

This grasshopper was laying her eggs right in the trail. The camera was about one inch from her and she just kept on laying...

We caught two horny toads and a common "Bernard" lizard. I put the lizard on my shoulder and he stayed there for over 4 miles of hiking and never jumped off. We let him go in camp.

This caterpillar is now in a cocoon in our horny toad cage.