SANTA CRUZ MOUNTAINS
I arrived on May 3rd for a week of herping in the Golden State. Here is the first habitat that I explored in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
Coast Garter Snake - This reptile is highly variable in appearance, with the colors between its yellow stripes brown or olive, with a pattern of dark spots, intermixed with a suffusion of red, orange or rust coloring.
Western Yellow-belly Racer - Racers are slender and agile snakes. Adults are uniformly pale blue, bluish-green, olive-green, gray, or brown above. As you might expect, the belly is cream to bright yellow in color.
The California Poppy is the most well known flower in the state and even schoolchildren are taught to recognize it. The satiny 1-3 inch wide petals form a shallow cup-shaped flower that is vivid golden orange in color.
Coast Range Fence Lizard - Fence Lizards have overlapping, pointed scales and are part of a large family of reptiles known as Spiny Lizards. They are also commonly called “swifts” because of their speed.
An especially robust California Kingsnake. This reptile lives in a wide variety of habitats, including woodland chaparral, grassland, deserts, marshes, along rivers or farms and even in bushy suburban areas.
California Slender Salamander - This creature is a lungless salamander that is found primarily in coastal mountain areas of Northern California.
The Northern Pacific Rattlesnake is the most widely distributed venomous reptile in California; it is one of the nine subspecies of the western rattlesnake.
False Tarantulas occur all over California from sea level to the high Sierra Nevada Mountains. Their reclusive habits and nocturnal behavior keep them hidden from view most of the time, so they aren’t commonly encountered.
Southern Alligator Lizard - These reptiles live in a variety of habitats. I tend to find them in grassy, brushy, or rocky openings within forested areas. I often find them hidden underneath logs.
Pacific Gopher Snakes range from cream to light brown and have dark blotches on their backs and smaller dark spots along their sides. Young examples tend to be more boldly patterned than adults.
Unlike squirrels from my home state of Ohio, California Ground Squirrels live in burrows which they excavate themselves. Some burrows are occupied communally, but each individual squirrel has its own entrance.