Weekend photos - Mt Tam watershed and fun with flashlights (2007.04.15)

Adam Thacher was nice enought to let me pile in his truck with his girlfriend Jill this weekend (and him of course) to go out to Mt. Tam's water shed ... some images of whats out there. Lots and lots of wildlife and flowers.

blue bellied lizard's blue belly

Coastal or SF Garter Snake

I don't know the name of this snake...shame on me.

Alligator Lizard with Ticks all over his ear holes...yuck.

I found two deer ticks on me when I got home and Jill got bit by a dog tick. Yellow legged frogs are breeding right now and the Taricha granulosa (rough skinned newts) are having a feast on their egg sacks. T. granulosa is one of the most poisonous organisms you'll come across in northern california. It produces Tetrodotoxin (TTX) the same toxin that puffer fish and blue ringed octopus have. The vodoo doctors of Haiti use to use the puffer fish in there zombie spells...probably because the correct does of tetrodotoxin knocks out your peripherial nervous system for about 3 days and to most people you appear to be dead. However in a few days when the toxin breaks down you wake up. I think Jesus and probably Lazarus from the bible were exposed to tetrodotoxin and the whole Easter thing is really a story about a little TTX poisoning. I have yet to verify an organism in the middle east that they could have obtained the toxin from.

oh also got a flashlight this weekend with a red light on it, got these shots:

I'm too cheap and shy to rent a model, besides mirrors are fun to work with...and they cause me to get this really cheesy ass smirk on my face.