Tufts Of The Macabre Joshua's
- Date: 2010-07-10 - Word Count: 415
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Winter, too, often finds snow piled deep over the creosote bushes, bowing them humbly to the ground. The uplifted, spiked tufts of the macabre Joshua's are laden, until each arm bears a gigantic snowball. Then almost all desert life shrinks into its shelter, and the camper huddles close to the skimpy fire of the desert dweller. Dawn always comes too early to the snake hunter, who has seldom turned in before midnight. Day arrives with a glow of such unbelievable color that only the most callous can stay asleep. Only the most weary will forego the few hours of early morning collecting. Only the most hardy can endure the rapid rise in temperature that follows the rising sun. While the sun's rays are still not too hot, and the ground is still cold from the low temperatures of night, day-loving reptiles crawl sluggishly from their burrows and spread every available inch of body surface to the grateful warmth of the sun.
Some lie flat on the ground; others mount the nearest clod of earth or pinnacle of rock. The more arboreal lizards find a sunny spot on the trunk of a mesquite, or on a twig of the many bushes that dot the desert. Each species follows the ancient pattern of its ancestors. Knowing this, the experienced collector is able to collect the largest number of his specialty, or the largest number of species. Sand-dwelling reptiles are most readily caught by tracking, a difficult although not impossible art that grows in fascination as perfection comes with experience. These reptiles, gorgeous, smooth-skinned, fringe-footed lizards, use the snowshoe principle in working through loose sand. The little, dust-colored horned rattlesnakes or sidewinders, and tiny gem-like orange, yellow and black spade-nosed snakes, are also specialists in sand locomotion. They must be tracked in the early hours of the day, as soon after sunrise as possible, so that the oblique rays of light throw even the faintest tracks into relief. One must work fast.
The ladder-like track of the sidewinder, discontinuous slanting bars of shadow in the early morning light, may be*followed for as much as a quarter of a mile-a night's run. And one of the fascinations in tracking lies in reading the story of a night's adventures. Here and there are the criss-crossing pad marks of gamboling kangaroo mice, telling by their arrangement that they have been busily engaged in kicking showers of sand at the little snake, their insidious attacker from ambush and consumer of their young.
Some lie flat on the ground; others mount the nearest clod of earth or pinnacle of rock. The more arboreal lizards find a sunny spot on the trunk of a mesquite, or on a twig of the many bushes that dot the desert. Each species follows the ancient pattern of its ancestors. Knowing this, the experienced collector is able to collect the largest number of his specialty, or the largest number of species. Sand-dwelling reptiles are most readily caught by tracking, a difficult although not impossible art that grows in fascination as perfection comes with experience. These reptiles, gorgeous, smooth-skinned, fringe-footed lizards, use the snowshoe principle in working through loose sand. The little, dust-colored horned rattlesnakes or sidewinders, and tiny gem-like orange, yellow and black spade-nosed snakes, are also specialists in sand locomotion. They must be tracked in the early hours of the day, as soon after sunrise as possible, so that the oblique rays of light throw even the faintest tracks into relief. One must work fast.
The ladder-like track of the sidewinder, discontinuous slanting bars of shadow in the early morning light, may be*followed for as much as a quarter of a mile-a night's run. And one of the fascinations in tracking lies in reading the story of a night's adventures. Here and there are the criss-crossing pad marks of gamboling kangaroo mice, telling by their arrangement that they have been busily engaged in kicking showers of sand at the little snake, their insidious attacker from ambush and consumer of their young.
Related Tags: early morning in desert, desert life, desert animals, study of reptiles
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