Category Archives: herptiles

  When I was a small child, I chased a lizard across a scree slope. I caught it by the tail, which promptly disconnected and was left wiggling in my hand. The lizard made its escape; it had autotomized. Autotomy … Continue reading →

  Painted Turtles love to spend a warm summer’s day loafing on a log. And why not?

  There are two species of Garter Snake around the Lake: Common and Western. And while today I saw two snakes, each was the slightly less common Western Garter Snake. A nice thing about the observations was that each appeared in a different … Continue reading →

  Doug Thorburn writes about his Tuesday pictures of Western Toads: Hi Alistair, thought you might be interested and/or horrified by these scenes of toad romance. At first I was hard pressed to determine where one toad started and the other … Continue reading →

  Yesterday, while I waited for the Harlequin Ducks to make an appearance, I sat on a rock by Kokanee Creek and watched a Western Toad. It is one of three local frogs, the others being the Columbia Spotted Frog … Continue reading →

  This has been a three-frog summer. Indeed, as far as I have been able to tell, this region has only three distinct species of frogs: Columbia Spotted Frog, Western Toad, Pacific Tree Frog. (A toad is actually a frog, … Continue reading →

  Toadlets abounded—a walk along the trail required care to avoid stepping on them. There were thousands of these newly metamorphosed Western Toads. Despite the great numbers, perhaps only one percent will survive to adulthood. A major predator is the garter … Continue reading →

  We spotted wee spotted frogs. +++(How often does one get to write such a sentence?) Columbia Spotted Frogs were seen basking along a shoreline. Pictures of the region’s two frogs and one toad can be seen on the Kootenay-Lake.ca website. This … Continue reading →

  The Northern Alligator Lizard is secretive and normally found under rocks or logs. Now and then it will sun itself in the open. Maybe that is what this one was doing when I spotted it yesterday afternoon.  

  The Painted Turtle is our only indigenous turtle. I keep seeing it and taking its picture—I then ignore the images, and post about something else. To make amends, here are three recent pictures of Painted Turtles taken from different places around the region. … Continue reading →