Howdy Herpers, 11/11/11
Happy Veteran's Day to all. My heartfelt thanks to all of you served, and continue to serve, the armed forces of this country.
Speaking of serving, Mr. Everything here is stepping back into the realm of assisting the Tucson Herp Society. I'm running for Vice President. When I stepped down from the Board two years ago, I had high hopes that somebody else would carry on the tradition of emailed meeting reminders. That didn't happen, and a whole lot of other things didn't happen either. I was hoping they didn't need me. I'm convinced now that they do. Every living organism and organization needs an a$$hole. The THS will soon have one again.
One of the first things I will do is get together a new list, so that the meeting reminders can start going out again. With this list, I only address about 30% of the membership But that is better than nothing.
The next meeting for the THS will be held on Tuesday, 25 November, 7:15 PM. Directions to meeting room: http://tucsonherpsociety.org/BIO5MapP1.pdf
Round one of the evening will transpire at ~5:00 PM.
We will have our pre-meeting gathering at Dirtbags, directions are below:
On the south side of Speedway, just west of Campbell, and just east of 1702 and the 7-11 is a dive called Dirtbags. Plenty of parking on west and south side of Dirtbags. Their address is 1800 East Speedway Blvd 85719, phone is 326-2600.
I will be giving their owner a heads up. I will be requesting that the waitresses
collect the tab directly from you when you receive your food and beverage.
Following the usual display of belching, gluttony and disgusting table manners associated with feasting herpers, we will all truck over to our meeting room. Herewe will experience the following:
THS Elections, and then:
Dr. Jon Davis
Arizona Game and Fish Department
Confronting contemporary conservation challenges from Memphis to mainland China
Jon Davis began to study Arizona herps as an undergraduate at Northern Arizona University where he met Erika Nowak and began volunteering on her projects. Jon completed his dissertation at Arizona State University in 2008 where he worked in Dale DeNardo’s laboratory and studied the environmental physiology of the Gila Monster (Heloderma suspectum), which he previously presented at THS in spring of 2007.
Jon spent 2008-2011 in Memphis, Tennessee, as a postdoc with a dual appointment at Rhodes College and the Memphis Zoo where he developed a broad amphibian conservation research program that took him from downtown Memphis to the remote mountains of China. Jon is now back in Arizona for good and is a Wildlife Specialist for the Arizona Game and Fish Department Wildlife Management Division.
Welcome back Jon! I hope to see aggregations of herpers in our arena.
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Ok, back to this Waldo Business,
The grand prize goes to a new winner, Mr. John Sullivan. Mr. Sullivan totally came in WAY ahead of the rest
of you. By 2:30 PM on the day this was sent out, he had them all nailed. He told me that he sacrificed
his lunch hour to conquer the puzzles. If you all heard the sighs of relief around noon last Wednesday, it
came from the turnip patch. The turnips were safe for a day.
Kudos John!
Honorable mention goes to Marty as always, Jeff as always, Bill "There-ain't-no colubrid" Montgomery, and especially Hugh McCrystal--who learned how to circle the herps on the pictures. Now, if Hugh can just learn to send all images at once, the company server will gush with gratitude.
Images 1 and 2: Rather than rely on a circle to give her away, I have just resorted to a close up of the snake in Pic 2.
Those of you who are Waldo-challenged can look at that second image, and see if the hint shows you the snake in Pic 1.
The snake is female CRAT #133, and this is the first time I've been able to get a shot of her in the open. It had rained in the early morning hours of 5 November, and she likely emerged to get a drink. At the time the photo was taken, the ambient temp was 7 C (44.6 F). Look at image 2 carefully. See how her pupil has rolled downward? That is a sure sign that the snake was sleeping. They don't have eyelids, but the trick of rolling the pupils down likely minimizes the glare of bright sunlight.
Images 3 and 4: Eastern Diamond-backed Rattlesnake. Circle in image 3 by John Sullivan, both images by Shannon Hoss. I think the second shot is one of the best images of a hiding snake that I've ever seen. If you look closely, you will note that every blade of grass and visible snake is in sharp focus. This belongs on the cover of a book or magazine, NOT on Roger Repp Suizo email. Nice shot Shannon--what were you aiming at?
Images 5 and 6: Yes Mr. Barker, we were finally "busted." These images were photoshopped. Also, the last batch included an image of ribbon snake and frogs. That was also photoshopped. Dave worked hard on these, so I couldn't say no to him--this time. And I'm sure you'll all agree, Dave did a damn good job with these. (Dave doesn't do anything half-assed.)
Circles and labels are by the current champ, John Sullivan on these images.
In the future, I will only reluctantly accept any more of this sort of thing. So don't get in a snit if I say "no."
The real spirit of this game is for all of us to get out there, and take some real images of real herps. What
this teaches us to do is to take a step back, as well as the step forward, when taking a photo.
I'm also not going to accept anything where the animal is deliberately fuzzed-out in an attempt to hide it.
The next "Where's Waldo" will include some EXCELLENT images from Jon Davis. These, as well as
Shannon's images (and mine this go around), are EXACTLY what I'm looking for.
Best to all, thanks for playing!
rogerLabels: Hidden Rattlesnakes, Roger Repp, Where's Waldo
