Category: Snakes

A Gila Monster Rescued, Mating Rattlesnakes, and Images of Life Sparked by the Monsoon Rains

Arizona’s spectacular monsoon season is in full swing this year. Here in the Middle San Pedro River Valley, we have received 7.28 inches of life-giving rain during the past seven weeks. Life of all kinds is emerging, much of it empowered by this season alone.

The strikingly beautiful Gila monster pictured above was photographed by my wife Kathleen just days ago. (One more reminder to my readers: if you don’t see that image, it is because you are viewing this in your email. Always go to my blog site – https://ralphwaldt.com – to see this post as I intended it, without omissions.) It is one of many desert animals whose activity increases or otherwise changes as a result of monsoon weather.

The world we live in has been under deep duress this past year; the global pandemic, political division, economic hardship, and numerous worldwide catastrophes have all combined to make many people feel stressed and depressed. That is the anthropocentric world. A wider view – beyond the human-centric world that we pay so much attention to – encompasses the rest of the planet’s glorious and infinitely varied life. When I feel overloaded after viewing the day’s headlines, I can always find a source of solace, reassurance, and joy simply by abandoning the vicarious, shallow world of my computer screen in favor of the outdoor world. All it takes is a few steps outside. Sunlight, vivid green plants, lizards, trees, bird song, fresh air… the real world is medicine for the soul.

One does not need to live in a rural area like I do in order to tap into the natural world. I have a friend who lives in suburbia, along the fringes of the immensity known as Dallas-Fort Worth. He spends time in his backyard where trees, shrubs, and a garden bring life and happiness into his world. There are no bears, cougars, or Gila monsters in his yard like there are here – but there is a diverse variety of life. My friend focuses his attention on smaller creatures and other forms of life; insects, lizards, and flowering plants, for example. He photographs what he sees – things that most people never even notice. The photographs from his back yard are often stunning, revealing a world remarkably rich in life captured by a talented, artistic photographer whose sharp observational skills remind us that life is everywhere, and that life is beyond beautiful.

With those thoughts in mind, I offer a series of recent images taken during the heart of the monsoon season here in the Middle San Pedro Valley of southeastern Arizona…

My wife, Kathleen, encountered this Gila monster as it was attempting to cross a public roadway. She did the right thing – she pulled off the side of the road, turned on her hazard lights, and stood by, ready to usher the lizard out of harm’s way should a speeding motorist arrive on the scene. As the Gila monster made it safely off of the pavement, it turned to face Kathleen and her camera, then ambled off into the desert. The lizard was lucky this time. Large numbers of reptiles are killed on Arizona’s roads every day, many of them by people who are fast drivers and/or simply harbor callous attitudes towards reptiles. All it takes to avoid such losses is slower speed and a modicum of care for the life we share the planet with.

A single feather laying in front of our ramada had a story to tell: a great horned owl had landed there the night prior, likely as it pounced on a prey item.

Mornings that follow monsoon rain storms often reveal the nocturnal work of encruster termites. These tiny insects encrust plant stems (or in this case, mesquite beans) with a mixture of soil particles and viscous saliva, then feed on the encapsulated items. Termites are exceptionally important components of this ecosystem; they are very numerous, widespread, and perform a crucial ecological function by breaking down plant cellulose, thus returning essential nutrients to the soil.

Some two decades ago, I first tasted wolfberries – they were delicious. Native peoples gathered these berries as a seasonal food source. A large number of birds and mammals utilize them as a high-calorie-per-unit-weight food source, packed with natural sugars. This plant is of the genus Lycium.

Summer raindrops adorn the fresh blossom of an Arizona poppy plant, Kallstroemia grandiflora.

One of the valley’s most common summer wildflowers is also among its most beautiful; trailing four o’clock, Allionia incarnata.

The emergent blooms of a barrel cactus. These cacti rely on summer rains for their annual reproductive efforts.

Silver-leaf nightshade – Solanum elaeagnifolium – always a joy to encounter, this native plant is grouped in the same botanical family as tomatoes, but it is not safe for human consumption.

Tarantulas are common here, but can be seen with any frequency only during the monsoon season, when lower daytime temperatures and increased humidity bring them out of hiding. If left alone, these are harmless, innocuous creatures.

Caterpillars of the white-lined sphinx moth (and other native Sphingicampid moths) are very common sights during summers graced by monsoonal moisture. When mature, they reach a size approximating that of a person’s index finger.

A few days prior, I encountered this mating pair of diamondback rattlesnakes just outside my shop door. Courtship and mating in this species is a process that can go on for several days.

Another diamondback appeared here last week, a large individual. This snake is quite rotund in the latter half of its body – I’d guess that it was a gravid female. Snakes are a valuable asset here, for they are a major help in controlling rodent populations. Mice and rats in southern Arizona could win gold medals for their ability to get into vehicle engines, where they cause frequent and very expensive problems.

Puffballs sprout from the floor of our mesquite bosque with great speed after summer rainfalls. Puffballs are specifically designed to work with rain. First, an initial rain is required to soak the soil. This enables the spherical mushrooms to sprout above the surface. Puffballs quickly mature, then wait for the next rainfall to facilitate their reproduction. When raindrops impact a puffball, they cause a sudden increase in internal pressure, forcing thousands of minuscule spores to erupt (or “puff” like smoke) out of the hole in the top of the mushroom. By releasing its spores only in response to falling rain, the fungus assures that freshly moistened soil is available the enhanced survival and successful growth of its offspring. Pretty cool or what?

An Incredible Explosion of Life

July brought us over six inches of very welcome rain! The summer monsoon – one of five distinct seasons here – has returned to southern Arizona after a two-year near-absence. Purple martins are cruising above the treetops and a family of Mississippi kites has been visiting us for days. We are seeing rattlesnakes on a daily basis. On sultry, warm nights, elf owls have been calling in the wee hours of the morning. Saguaros are fattening as they transport water in their tissues. Native grasses are  sprouting. The land and its life are rejoicing.

The changes on the landscape are incredible, happening with amazing rapidity and soaring fecundity. The mesquite bosque surrounding our home had been without a green understory during the entire past two years. Not any more! One glance out the window reveals a near-jungle of dense greenery standing five feet tall – much of it composed of one dominant plant with the unflattering common name of “pigweed.”

Fresh growth emerges with stunning speed and vigor after nitrogen-rich summer rains soak the land. This image is a week old; the understory plant community has doubled in height since then.

Pigweed is known to botanists as Amaranthus palmeri, and it is certainly not a “weed.” In the conventional sense, most of us consider weeds to be troublesome non-native plants. This one is a native species, and its presence speaks of great benefits to the land and its wildlife.

One of the primary winter forage plants for the deer that inhabit this river valley is pigweed. A good source of winter forage is critically important to wild ungulates. Rabbits, hares, javelina, and many rodents feed on the green plants in summer. Once the seed heads form, they tend to remain through autumn and winter on dead, standing plants. Great numbers of various species of sparrows winter in southern Arizona. The  seeds of pigweed are heavily fed upon by many of these sparrows and other native birds as well. Something that is very obvious, but often overlooked by many people, is the fact that the dense stands of pigweed are shading the ground. I can’t stress enough how important shade is in desert ecosystems! The ground retains much more moisture and soil temperatures are far lower, allowing fungal hyphae and numerous other microflora and microfauna to work in shallower horizons of the soil. This benefits all life.

The summer rains bring many creatures out of hiding. Among these are toads, countless insects, red velvet mites, and the largest millipedes living in the United States…

Giant millipedes spend nearly all of their lives underground, typically emerging only after monsoon rainstorms. This one was about five inches in length; some sources claim this species can reach up to nine inches in length. These fascinating, innocuous arthropods can live for ten years, growing longer as they add more body segments every time they shed.

I had taken several shots of the millipede, working close to the ground, before I noticed this small diamondback curled sixteen inches away. It never made a sound. When left undisturbed, these snakes are rarely aggressive. Their primary method of defense is stillness and excellent camouflage.

When one of these huge beetles comes flying by, it is guaranteed to get your attention. This is a palo verde root borer, measuring in at three inches in length. These beetles are another example of the many species that are brought out from hiding by the rains.

For many of our of native amphibians, monsoon rains furnish their only chance to reproduce successfully.  A strong population of spadefoot toads inhabits this valley, but they remain completely sequestered until strong summer rainstorms bring them up from their deep underground burrows. On July 3rd, the first monsoon storms rolled in –  a succession of two storms with plenty of lightning and life-giving rainfall. That night, the landscape was ringing with the voices of hundreds upon hundreds of spadefoot toads.

Couch’s spadefoot toad is the most abundant amphibian in the Middle San Pedro Valley, but only summer residents witness them.

A pair of Couch’s spadefoots mating. These amphibians must lay their eggs in water. In desert environments, the toads wait for summer storms to create suitable pools of water. Here, the male is grasping the female in a posture known as amplexus – when she lays her masses of eggs, he releases sperm into the water.

Spadefoot tadpoles mature more quickly than almost any other tadpoles on the planet – in as little as nine days. This is a species that has evolved to live in a hot, dry desert environment, where pools of water are not only rare, but tend to be very short-lived. It pays to mature quickly under such demanding conditions.

It is hard to say what to call the amphibians in this brief period of their lives; tadpoles or toadlets? At this stage in their development, the tails shorten very quickly. As newly formed toads appear, they can be seen hopping by the dozens out of their natal pond.

Just two days ago, despite the fact that I am always on the lookout for rattlesnakes, I nearly stepped on this one that was well camouflaged under the ramada. I am glad that we did not have an unfortunate interaction.

A Photographic Tour of Early Summer Life Along the San Pedro River

First, an important message to my readers: For a much better experience, when you receive notice of new blog posts in your email, please be sure to click on the blog’s title. That will take you to my blog website, where the photographs are larger and the text is more readable. Also, there is a “featured image” at the top of every new blog post that does not appear in the email version. Do this now – you will notice a substantial improvement!

Summer has come to the river and its valleys, bringing a cavalcade of change to the animal world. Today, my thermometer registered 113° F. I don’t leave southern Arizona during the summer like so many people do every year. This is my favorite season here, because so much happens in the natural world during the fierce heat of summer…

Mike and Mavis have successfully raised their seventh brood here on our land. This year, four new ravens have fledged and left the nest. Here are two of them. Note the pinkish-white bordering around their beaks and their pink mouths. As they mature, the pinkish color on their beaks disappears, and the inside of their mouths turns black.

Several weeks ago, the velvet mesquite trees erupted with fresh blossoms. These are the precursors to an abundance of bean pods that provide one of the most crucially important food sources for the valley’s wildlife.

A closer look at the flowers of a velvet mesquite tree. These blossoms perfume the air with a sweet, heady fragrance.

A queen butterfly alights to drink from the wet mud surrounding our watering hole. This insect is often mistaken for its well-known cousin, the monarch.

The back side of a male Gould’s turkey in full display. These birds – and their tails – are huge! The white tips on the tail feathers are one of the field marks that distinguish this race of wild turkeys from their eastern relatives. Part of the display involves dragging the wing tips on the ground, an action that creates a loud rasping sound, meant to intimidate rival males.

A male summer tanager comes to feed from a block of suet. This is America’s only all-red bird, a living statement of resplendent color and grace. Their future in this valley is being threatened by large numbers of brown-headed cowbirds.

This male black-headed grosbeak has been sending his voice through the bosque every morning, a series of loud, robin-like notes.

Few of our western birds are more strikingly colored than the western tanager. A different race of this species stays here in the valley floor to breed every summer. Most western tanagers utilize very different breeding habitats – namely, conifer forests at higher elevations.

A male blue grosbeak that visits daily for water. Blue is one of the rarest of colors among Earth’s terrestrial vertebrate animals.

A new beaver dam graces the flow of the San Pedro River. Dams like this permit substantially more water to infiltrate the ground below their surfaces, recharging the shallow aquifers that give life to the river’s riparian forests of cottonwoods and willow trees. There were five more dams below this one. I cannot think of a single mammalian species that is more beneficial to the river and its forests than beavers are.

I awoke one morning to find this characteristic fresh imprint at the foot of my entry steps. A rattlesnake had curled up there the night prior, leaving its signature circular mark. No other Arizona snakes rest in such a circular position. For reference, the grizzly track cast in concrete is six inches in width. Grizzlies were once common along this river until they were wiped out by Spanish and American settlers.

A black-tailed jackrabbit resting in the shade of a mesquite trunk on a toasty summer day. When the heat cranks up, animal behavior changes. This hare let me approach within four feet, something it would not have allowed on a cooler day. The name “jackrabbit” is a misnomer, as these creatures are hares, not rabbits.


Until I came to live in southeastern Arizona, I would not have believed that there could be pink snakes native to our country. This coachwhip snake appeared on a hot afternoon, five feet of blazing bubblegum pinkness!

Coachwhip snakes are expert climbers. Kathleen and I looked out a window one day to see this tail protruding from an active Gila woodpecker nest. Fortunately, the snake did not wipe out the entire brood – it consumed one or two nestlings and moved on.

A gopher snake encountered on a sandy bank of the San Pedro River. These snakes attain lengths of seven feet or more and are often mistaken for rattlesnakes. They are among the most effective rodent controllers we have. Favored food items include mice, rats, and gophers.

A diamondback rattlesnake slithers through the mesquite bosque, traveling in a manner common among rattlesnakes, using caterpillar motion. When snakes crawl in this fashion, their bodies remain almost straight rather than sinuously curved. We never kill these animals. They have a right to live here, no less than we do. When summer comes, we are always on guard, watching closely where we place every footstep, especially after dark.

Beavers add a special touch of beauty to the river, creating ponds that mirror their surroundings and provide needed habitat for a long list of other creatures.

The EGGS Have HATCHED! Signs of Spring Adorn a Desperate Landscape

Late in the evening of April 17th, new sounds could be heard emanating from the surrounding mesquite bosque. Barely audible but familiar from prior years, the sounds were raspy, tremulous, unique. They were the first thin cries of hatchling ravens, born to none other than our pair of resident Chihuahuan ravens, Mike and Mavis. This new brood marks their seventh successful nesting on our property and their first in the new nest (described in my previous blog post). As always, we are honored to share habitat with these regal birds. We look forward to watching them raise and teach their young. Few North American birds spend as much time rearing and educating their young as ravens do.

The demands of a raven’s day-to-day life reach a crescendo during nesting season. After the chicks have hatched, both parent birds spend their days defending the nest from predators and making countless trips back and forth to bring food and water to their young. Nestling birds require amazing amounts of food at frequent intervals. Here, the mother raven is about to abscond with a tasty block of suet.

The past year has been the driest I have ever witnessed in southeastern Arizona. Last year’s crucial summer rains barely happened here in the Middle San Pedro River Valley, and the following winter rains were extremely sparse. The landscape is desperately dry, even for a desert, so signs of spring have been more welcome than ever. One of them appeared several weeks ago when a black swallowtail flew in to get a drink from a muddy patch of soil near one of our bird water dishes. Butterflies play very important roles in the ecology of this ecosystem. They grace our lives with their flight and their remarkable beauty.

A black swallowtail, (Papilio polyxenes), gets a drink from a patch of wet soil. Caterpillars of this species can be found primarily on plants in the parsley family.

Another sign of the changing seasons was the emergence of a  beetle known as the fiery searcher. Just over an inch in length, these beetles display gorgeous coloration; an indigo-purple head, thorax, and legs with emerald green, iridescent elytra (wing coverings). This marked the first time that I have ever encountered this species here in a mesquite woodland. Usually, I find them in the riparian cottonwood-willow forests along the San Pedro River.

A fiery searcher, (Calosoma scrutator ). This insect is classified within the family Carabidae, the ground beetles. Fiery searchers are active during the day, hunting caterpillars and grubs. The species pictured here manufactures noxious chemical compounds for defense; they smell horrendous and probably taste just as bad to potential predators.

Another certain sign of spring is the emergence of reptiles. A few weeks ago, I had a surprise when I retrieved a wheelbarrow from an open shed. I always keep wheelbarrows flipped over so that rain water cannot accumulate inside and rust them out. When I flipped the wheelbarrow over, here is what I found…

This western diamondback had discovered a safe, dark place to hide in, until I needed the wheelbarrow.

I have found rattlesnakes under my wheelbarrows more than once in the past. All snakes – including rattlesnakes – are always welcome on our land. We never kill them. Once in a rare while, I will capture and move one to a safer locale, but usually I simply let them be, like this one. I do my best to respect all life!

A closer look at the formerly hidden snake. Rattlesnakes at rest almost invariably assume this characteristic, circular posture.

With respect to most species, snakes can be readily identified by their markings and coloration. Rattlesnakes, gopher snakes, and many other snakes can be recognized even further, as distinct individuals. The markings on their heads and necks are individually unique, much like our fingerprints.

Yesterday, another sign of spring showed up nearby, a beautiful glossy snake. They are among the most common snakes in local mesquite bosques. Glossy snakes can reach lengths approaching four feet and feed on mice, kangaroo rats, lizards, and other snakes.

Glossy snakes are commonly mistaken for gopher snakes. One of several ways to tell them apart is that gopher snakes have keeled scales on their backs, whereas all of the scales on glossy snakes are smooth. Their technical moniker is hard to forget: Arizona elegans. The whitish object in the upper left quadrant of the image is a velvet mesquite bean.

The local stands of mesquite furnish very high quality firewood in addition to providing crucially important habitat to numerous wildlife species. Recently, a dead mesquite was felled here on our place that was threatening to crush one of our buildings if it were allowed to fall naturally. I sawed it into firewood. Other dead trees are left standing, for they are very important to many living creatures and to the health of the soil that they will eventually become a part of.

We live in an age when most adults and even our children are soft, weak, and overweight. Machines now do much of our work for us, and recreation often consists of vegetating in front of a computer screen or playing sedentary video games. A little physical work will always do a body good. I have felled, bucked, hauled, and stacked more firewood than I can ever recall. My decades in Montana always included a demand for at least eight cords of wood annually. Even here in southern Arizona, winters get chilly and a warm wood stove can be a real comfort on frosty nights.

Baby Turtle, a Giant Bug, Hidden Rattlesnake, and More

9/13/2020 The past week has brought us many fascinating sights and sounds here in our southeastern Arizona landscape. One of my neighbors discovered a very young ornate box turtle on his property just a few days ago. For almost two decades, I have been seeing ornate box turtles in this valley, but something soon became puzzling about them. 

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Box turtles this tiny are a very rare sight locally. Box turtle photos courtesy of Gilbert Urias.

In all my time here, I have yet to see a single individual that is not of adult size. No hatchlings, no young, no pint-sized box turtles. I have thought for some time that they have been having trouble reproducing successfully in this area, so these images are nice to see! 

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A giant mesquite bug, clinging to my screen door. The “screening” is actually 1/8-inch hardware cloth, giving a good depiction of the scale of this lumbering insect.

A giant mesquite bug (Thasus neocalifornicus) appeared on our screen door. This actually is a true bug, a Hemipteran. The growth stages of this large insect involve several iterations as bright red social nymphs. Only in their final stage of their development do these insects become solitary and grow wings that enable flight.

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Mike the Raven came to visit us this morning, as always. A full essay about him and his mate, Mavis, appears in my new book, The Life of the San Pedro River.

This has been a stellar week for bird sightings. Many migrant species are passing through, or arriving to spend the winter. Among the new arrivals here the past week have been calliope, rufous, Allen’s, broad-tailed, and Anna’s hummingbirds, Nashville, black-throated gray, Townsend’s, Virginia’s, and Wilson’s warblers, lazuli, varied, and indigo buntings,  Brewer’s, clay-colored, vesper, chipping, and savannah sparrows, a lark bunting, and more. This morning, as always, our resident pair of ravens, Mike and Mavis, came to visit, along with a female Cooper’s hawk that spent many minutes bathing in one of our bird watering dishes. 

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This Cooper’s hawk arrived during mid-morning to scatter a group of feeding songbirds.

Cooper’s hawks are exceptionally agile, quick, alert predators that fly with more than enough finesse to catch songbirds on the wing in dense cover. When small birds go to sleep for the night, Cooper’s hawks must color their nightmares! 

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Perched in a velvet mesquite tree, the hawk dried and preened its feathers.
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Not far from where the hawk was bathing, this western diamondback rattlesnake lay coiled in a typical, circular resting position, not easy to see in the undergrowth.

Our days have been very hazy this week, the sunsets a surreal deep, dusky orange, even the moon has glazed over with smoky orange hues. For Arizonans, the smoke-filled skies are a daily reminder of the horrors that are transpiring in neighboring California as the worst fire season in history wreaks utter havoc across the state. My heart goes out to all Californians, for I know what it is like to suddenly leave home not knowing if it will be there upon our return. Huge wildfires and evacuations were a part of our lives more than a few times when we lived in Montana. May the people of California stay out of harm’s way, and may the rains come!

Western Diamondbacks Making Love in My Shed

Three days ago, I awoke in the morning to find an interesting story written in the fine dusty soil that forms the floor of a three-sided outdoor shed on our property. One side of the building is open and often attracts snakes to enter, where they find hiding places in the shady interior. A look at the ground told me that a pair of rattlesnakes had been courting and possibly mating there the night prior. I spotted them shortly thereafter, only a few feet away, resting together. As I watched, the male snake would crawl over the top of the female while making short, forward jabs of his chin along her back. These snakes have evolved a very tactile courtship behavior. If stimulated for a sufficient length of time, the female will usually allow the male to mate. Viable sperm is stored in the female to produce young the following spring. Western diamondbacks also mate in the spring and give birth later in summer. What amazed me about this pair was that this courtship has continued for nearly three days! 

  • The female is partially obscured and at rest here, as the male continues to crawl over her...
    The female is partially obscured and at rest here, as the male continues to crawl over her…
  • The track patterns that appeared in the morning strongly suggested that they were made by courting diamondbacks.
    The track patterns that appeared in the morning strongly suggested that they were made by courting diamondbacks.