adventures at the wash

To celebrate the spring equinox,  we went for a morning stroll through our favorite park and explored the wash that boarders it. there was so much life abuzz about us! from the many butterflies to the little ground squirrels to the ginormous snake! (more on that one later)
 It truly was a picturesque morning! and we had many great adventures!

lets start with adventure number one ...

the whole reason this park is one of Williams favorites is because of this huge lizard, that we found there 2 years ago and every time we go it is Williams goal to hunt, find and finally catch him, all the while i am hoping we don't ever to get too close to him, because, well he is a huge fatty lizard and i have visions of him jumping from the branch of a tree and going straight for the jugular.... or in my second slightly less traumatic imagining is that William finally catches it, only the second he holds his prize up triumphantly, it bites  his finger off!  like really!...  this lizard and i have had a stare down on more then one occasion and i think we both know who would come out victorious in this little game we play! (and it's not me! just so we are clear.)

so today William was on the hunt and, i swear i don't know how he does it, but William spotted him from a good 50 feet  away hiding in a bush! so, i grab my camera! zoom in, as far as i can! and snap a pic, before it plays out the way it has for the last 2 years ...we get with in 5 feet of him and he magically disappears! he might be part dragon or have some invisibility cloak? it's hard to say, but it has got some impressive skill sets!  so today i will share the documentation of said  invisible dragon lizard mystical beast!

                              **remember this is zoomed way in from the far side of the wash!

(and for those of you wondering, yes! William has already identified him as a Clarks Spiny Lizard)

so if that wasn't excitement enough....

adventure number 2...

as we are walking the kids were pointing out the different types of butterflies  they saw and found a few birds nests hiding in the trees and brush....

and bringing me pretty pieces or quarts crystals, and broken glass, flowering weeds and pine cones...

                                             i call all these wonderful things "kid treasures"

and before long i stop in my tracks! because maybe 4 feet away from me i see a huge snake, resting by some rocks in our path!  i shout to the kids to get be hind me! it looked kind of like a rattlesnake... and it was definitely big enough to be one! i get myself and the kids up on to the bank of the other side of the wash Ivy is crying.... William is cautiously curious and i am all " i got to take a picture!!!"

 We all stare at it watching to see if it will move, so we can continue our sojourn... a few minutes pass and i am like" hmmm is that even a rattle snake?"
so William says "lets see if we can make it move or rattle".. so from the safety of our ledge we start throwing small sticks and rocks by the snake to see if it would react ..(awesome parenting, i know!) .....nothing....
"is it dead?" i thought.
so i threw a stick at it and it bounced right off ! with no response from the snake what so ever...
so i am like "ok i have to check this out".. mean while ivy is screaming "NO MOM!! NO!!"
and William is like "GO! MOM GO!!
and i decide i am gonna throw something at it one more time just to make sure....
so i did and again nothing... so i walk up to it and notice yeah this thing is dead i could see that a dog or coyote must have gotten it because it had puncture wounds around its neck...(do snakes have a neck? are snakes just necks?  hmm.) anyway, lets just say right behind his head. i  go in to get a closer look... and "NO RATTLE!" William shouts, and i jump a few feet back in surprise, i didn't realize both kids were at my side! (heart attack!) so in the few seconds it took me to figure out the sound was not the snake, but my son quickly going to work to identify  what kind of snake it was! i begin to hypothesize with him....which he just rolled his eyes at all my ideas... and said no mom this is clearly a gopher snake... and then begins to tell me all about how gopher snakes like to pretend to be rattlesnakes, how they have similar features  and how they rattle there tails and make hissing noises that replicates the sound of a rattle and i am all like... how do you even know all this stuff!! (thank you phoenix public library)
 just out of curiosity i was like" how big do you think this snake is?" so we got a stick and straighten him out.....
                                               guys!! he was a good 6+ foot snake!!

so we bid farewell to the poor snake and said a little prayer for it's spirit, as he must have been a good snake to get to be such an impressive size.  and headed home for some peanut butter and honey sandwiches!