Birding Loop with Tom
This past Monday, Tom Forwood and I took a birding loop that took us up Lolo Creek to the Fish Creek Road, and then, up the Clark Fork River. Even though it was a birding trip, I managed no bird keeper photographs, but I did have several first-of-year species. Among these were Hammond’s and Dusky […]
Coeur D’Alene Salamander – A long time in coming
I remember cracking open the Amphibians and Reptiles of the Pacific Northwest, and seeing the enigma – the Coeur D’Alene Salamander. The range map showed that its distribution included northwest Montana. I had never seen one, or even know they existed for matter. I had seen Long-toed Salamanders before and countless numbers of frogs. I learned […]
The Scaly Lifer – Western Fence Lizard
“There it is!”, I exclaimed as the brakes pounded down against the floorboard. A large lizard basking itself near the top of a lichen-encrusted boulder. Large by lizard standards (~8 inches) and thickly bodied, it was much more so than I had expected. Overjoyed to finally find this reptilian, the Western Fence Lizard, a sense […]
First Gophersnake of 2012
This past Saturday the US Fish and Wildlife Service had opened the Red Sheep Mountain Road within the National Bison Range. We went with the intentions of seeing the unbelievable scenery and, of course, birds. The pleasant surprise of the road was a Gophersnake along side of the gravel road. When I was a child, […]
Western Skink…well worth the wait
So many posts left un-writtened…I will attempt to catch up on this blog and my photography-centric blog, http://www.raddphotography.com. I have always wanted to observe a Western Skink, but alas, the little buggers always eluded me. I remember seeing a lizard on a fencepost when I was a kid, but nothing since. That was true until […]
First herp of the 2012: Western Painted Turtle
During a quick drive through visit of Lee Metcalf National Wildlife Refuge, I spied a couple of new brown bumps on a log that I have looked at dozens of times. The brown bumps turned out to be a couple of Western Painted Turtles, my fist herps of 2012. This is the first time that […]