Favoritos de faris

People saw a Bobcat (Lynx rufus) catch this snake and eat (or at least tear off) the back 1/3 or more of it. The photos were taken several hours after this happened, and the snake was still clearly alive.

Black-white morph mountain king snake in Yosemite Valley, climbing up a crack on Washington Column. ~200 feet below summit, 1000+ feet above valley floor.
Second and third photos are looking climber's right and below where the snake was observed

Found this lil one which I have never seen a color morph like this for a Mud snake. I determined it to be one based off the visual/physical features such as the “tail spine”, pattern, head/eye shape, as well as a divided anal plate.

Bursting out of the belly of a road-killed Red-shouldered Hawk. Probably yesterday's lunch, as today was quite cloudy. Further impressive as the ditches are full of snow and most of the water is frozen over

Found and photographed by Brian Hess

While I was on a trail run, I came across this king snake right after it caught a rattle snake. It was on the Indian Valley Creek single-track trail. I just joined iNaturalist, and while this image is old, I thought it would be of interest, since it's a rare sighting in the wild.

I came across this unusual scene while hiking back to my car this afternoon. What I think is happening here is that the racer probably tried to predate the alligator lizard, only to have the alligator lizard clamp down on the snake's head. When I came upon them, the snake wasn't moving much. I sat and watched for a bit, but then noticed a mountain biker coming down the trail. When I stood up so he could see me, I must have startled the lizard, because all of a sudden the snake got free, and zipped off into the tall grass on the side of the trail. After a second or two, the alligator lizard also dashed off, albeit in the other direction. I felt a little badly about disturbing the situation, but really there was a good chance one or both animals would have been run over by the biker, who was demonstrating his species' usual level of spatial awareness. (ie none whatsoever. I'm still not sure he ever saw me.) All in all, it was quite a surprising encounter.
(@gregpauly, I thought you might be interested in this one, since it shows the jaw strength of a Northern Alligator lizard from a different angle than the one we know from mating lizards.)

I came across this unusual scene while hiking back to my car this afternoon. What I think is happening here is that the racer probably tried to predate the alligator lizard, only to have the alligator lizard clampdown on the snake's head. When I came upon them, the snake wasn't moving much. I sat and watched for a bit, but then noticed a mountain biker coming down the trail. When I stood up so he could see me, I must have startled the lizard, because all of a sudden the snake got free, and zipped off into the tall grass on the side of the trail. After a second or two, the alligator lizard also dashed off, albeit in the other direction. All in all, it was quite a surprising encounter.
(@gregpauly, I thought you might be interested in this one, since it showsthe jaw strength of a Northern Alligator lizard from a different angle than the one we know from mating lizards.