HENRY W. COE STATE PARK & HERPING WITH ZACH
Eventually a fine day of herping came to an end and I envisioned finding my third lifer in three days on Wednesday. To do so, I travelled south for about an hour, until I got to this hilly place.

Then I walked for a few miles. Along the way I saw a Tarantula Hawk.

And a Western Whiptail Lizard too.

And then I made it to this creek, where I was hoping to find...

...lifer #3 - the Foothill Yellow-legged Frog (this was turning out to be a pretty good trip to the Golden State).

Another photo of one of these fine creatures.

Even this Northern Pacific Rattlesnake was excited, as it started rattling when I was 20 feet away.

Turkey Vulture.

On Thursday I joined forces with Zach to once again herp the Santa Cruz Mountains.

We flipped a bunch of old boards and found some cool stuff.

Like colorful Coast Garters.

One with a bit of extra red coloration.

As well as this not-so-colorful one which was in shed. This was the first time I've seen a western Garter doing the "flattening out" defense behavior. It seems eastern Garters employ this habit much more often than those west of the Mississippi.

This was a seriously sweet Southern Alligator Lizard.

We caught a Racer that looked like it was chewed up pretty badly in the past, but otherwise seemed healthy.