Ouch, July and August are harsh times to visit Phoenix and San Diego. Bet you were miserable. I dearly love both cities but after living in Oregon for so long I must visit in cooler months. If the fish is missing with no disturbance of plants and no scales or bones laying around it was likely a bird. Heron or kingfisher. Raccoons make a mess like a tornado and cats aren't very likely to actually catch a fish and if they do they often just play with it rather than eat it so you find evidence. Birds scoop them up and swallow them whole. Hope the Scarecrow does the trick for you. Easier to transplant tadpoles in spring than adult frogs to have them stick around anyway. Adults tend to leave.

8/2--During the day found some Slevin's Bunchgrass Lizards, Yarrow's Spiny Lizards and a Desert-Grassland Whiptail. Like Keith I had a good night on the roads. I found a gorgeous and very large green Mojave Rattlesnake (3 feet plus with 10 buttons on the rattle) at 7:45PM. I was thrilled as it was my first live Mojave in the wild. Twenty minutes later I found a 15-16 inch subadult Mojave rattlesnake. Toads were also in force and I saw many great plains toads and a couple of spadefoot toads. 8/3--no interesting herps today. Saw an Arizona Woodpecker and a Sulfur-Bellied Flycatcher for a couple of lifelist birds. 8/4--hiked to the top of a mountain with my wife and dad in the Portal area and nearly slid off a steep point where the trail was partially eroded. My mom had turned back because of the hazardous trail quality in some places. Saw lots of lizards and had fun seeing the species change as we gained in elevation. Start of the trail was dominated by whiptails, then Striped Plateau Lizards and a Clark's Spiny Lizard and finally Mountain (Yarrow's) Spiny Lizards. Saw an enormous 55 inch snake skin at lower elevation on the way back. I imagine it belonged to a Western Diamondback by size alone. If it is a Blacktail Rattlesnake it is a remarkable specimen. My mom saw a Green Rat Snake down at lower elevation. Wish I'd been there for that instead of going on the mountain ledge balancing tour. The night road cruise that night was disappointing and only produced two DOR snakes. A Western Diamondback and a juvenile Mojave.

8/5--Had my best snake day of the trip. Saw a nice adult Black-Tailed Rattlesnake crossing a road at 1:35PM at 5800 feet elevation. It had ten buttons and was a good 3 feet long. We followed it into the woods and continued snapping pictures of it. Two female rangers happened upon our vehicle blocking the road and saw that we were taking pictures of a snake. They were very friendly and said they had seen another one of similar size and color about ten minutes up the road. At 5:05PM we came across a Sonoran Mountain Kingsnake at 7800 feet elevation. It was a gorgeous snake. I t was unusually fiesty too. It bit me repeatedly in rapid succession and musked me in my brief attempts to keep it in range for pictures. I was amazed at the speed in which it struck and its personality seemed more like that of a arcer or coachwhip. Possibly my favorite snake of the trip. Believe it or not, I've only been bitten by 3 snakes in my life and so any snake that bites me gets special recognition. That night I roadcruised from 7:30-9:30 and found two nice Western Diamondbacks. The first was an impressive 43 inch specimen at 8:20PM. The second was a 31 inch Western Diamondback at 8:50PM. The lengths are approximate. I didn't hold them out to a tape measure. Both snakes were unaggressive and merely went about their foraging as though we weren't even there. 8/6-Spotted a modest sized adult Black-Tailed Rattlesnake under a rock 3 minutes into a hiking trail in the mountains. Also saw several Yarrow's Spiny Lizards. The snake was still basking under the rock when we returned from our hike at 10:45AM. We brought Keith out that afternoon and the snake was still there. He learned that its hard to get a good snake picture with a disposable camera. As he leaned to get up close to the snake eye to eye it zipped under a rock and rattled its tail in retreat. We saw a cool mountain short horned lizard on our hike. It did let me lay down for some eye to eye shots with a point and click digital. The snakes were on the move that night. I spotted a Mojave and a Western Diamondback from the car and missed seeing a Western Diamondback that moved across the road swiftly while I was looking for a road sign. Also saw a DOR Mojave. 8/7--Didn't do much herping in the day because Rachel wanted to see Bisbee. We drove there and at one point watched the temp drop 30 degrees in 15 miles. Decided to road cruise the mountains at evening and early night but the rains had made things very cool and nothing was stirring. Cruised the flats for half an hour as a consolation and saw two juvie Mojaves back to back at 8:30 and 8:33PM.

Thanks Gary. Hey Wayne can you post my Gila Monster pic when you get a chance? It isn't a great picture, because it got blurred a little with motion and its head isn't very visible but it is still a great "see how close I am and see that distinctive gila monster pattern and coloration" shot.