Wedding Crasher

This crazy guy was crashing a wedding. It was his backyard and he decided to block the isle and the bridesmaids had to wait till he decided to move on.

"Tartesso" Owls

We were out in Tartesso Tuesday night and ran into a few of these great hunters hanging out. I counted at least 6, but heard more off in the distance. I tried to walk out and get a little closer to them but they watched me every step of the way. I got ready to click as they flew away and although the trees were in the way a little, I was impressed with the wingspan and the size of them in flight so close.

2011 Night Hike IV (or something like that)

We went on another infamous night hike the other night and although we did not see too much, we did have a bunch of fun...as always.

This guy was crusin down Vulture Mine Road towards Wickenburg. We found this Mohave rattlesnake and it is VERY important to realize that rattlesnakes can sense your heat signiture. Which means if you get too close, they will bite you even if you have a very bright light in their eyes. DON'T EVER PUT YOUR HAND TOO CLOSE!!!
...like this.
...or this...as just an example of what NOT to do. They DO love to have their chins tickled. Oops. Camera angle gave away our secret.

This Desert Hairy Scorpion is like something out of a 1980 science fiction film.And the biggest find of the night, Roger Rabbit's creepy Sanoran Desert cousin, Jerry the Creepy Jackrabbit. YIKES!! And just to clear the air, my zipper is not down.

Havasupai

We took our young men from church down to Havasupai Canyon and spent the week hiking, swimming, and exploring. The place was crawling with whiptails, spinys, and tree lizards. I caught a big whiptail but I seem to have misplaced my camera (at the bottom of Havasu Falls).

These two guys I caught on the same tree. The little tree lizard was trying so hard to bite the spiny. It was funny to watch. I think he has "short man complex".

This is a king snake I caught on our day hike we took Thursday. We went 20 miles to the Colorado River and back in about 7 hours. We sat and had soda from some rafters on the Colorado for about an hour of that.

Somehow I got him to stay on my hand for a picture.

They took a video of him croaking in my hand I will post when I get it.

Fossil Springs Trip 2011

We took all of our scouts into Fossil Springs for a backpacking trip. I saw mostly tree lizards and swarms of bugs. I did find a few frogs but they were shy to the camera. This guy was flirting with a female higher up in the tree. He is missing his tail and it was growing back. It made him look like a little bulldog.

Not sure I was so excited to be this close to this creepy spider, but we saw a bunch of these all up and down the creek.

The water was SOOOO clear. If you look close you can see the fish. This part of the creek was about 6 feet deep.

I was sitting high on the cliff above where the old dam was and this guy jumped up right next to me with a bug in his mouth. I snapped this shot just as he finished the job. You can see the legs sticking out of his mouth if you look close.

Daddy-Long-Leg

I know it is not wild and exciting to see a daddy-long-leg spider. But I have never been able to get a good picture of one. Also, this one was about the size of a small orange. It was crusing next to my pack in camp, and I watched it try to catch moths. Impressive.

Cow Killer

We went on a hike today and saw one of these cruisin along. I could barely get a picture of her she was going so fast. They are actually called Velvet Ants and are really just a type of wasp.
They are called cow killers because they have a really powerful sting that is rumored to be able to kill a cow.

Day Hike...Owls and a Western Diamondback

Gage and I went on a small day hike. We tipped over some trash and walked down a few ditches. In one ditch, Gage yelled, "Dad, look out! A huge snake!" I did not see it but he said it was right under my leg as I stood over the ditch. Then, on the way back, I found this guy in the same spot. He was a Western Diamondback rattlesnake, about 4.5 feet long. Gage wanted nothing to do with it. He was huge and I had to get a picture or two. His rattle had 12 rattles on it's tail. I could not touch my fingers around its body it was so thick around. He must have been at least 9 inches in circumference. Nothing to mess around with for sure!

This is a burrowing owl. They live all over by my brother's house. He was just sitting on the edge of a ditch waiting for some food. I love his eyes.

Bull Snake

I know some have already seen these, but we found this bull snake in the weeds in my neighbor's front yard. We had one as kids in our yard that ate all the gophers. Tiffin was not about to let me keep this in the back (or front) yard. In fact, she made sure it got let go a few miles away.

In preperation for a hike I am going on this summer with our older scouts down to Havasupai, my bishop and I went on a 10 mile hike with our packs partially loaded down. We were hoping to get a feel for what we would feel like after 10 miles. We took the Ford Canyon Trail. http://www.arizonahiking.org/whitetankshike1.htm

We found this guy towards the end of the hike and it took some effort to pull him out. Luckily he bit me when I reached in the crack he was in and was able to grab part of his leg too. I just pulled him out from there. We let him go farther away from the busy trail.