Hunt for the Southern Alligator Lizard: Part 1

Target: the elusive southern alligator lizard:


(not my image)

As you all may know, I've been on a quest to catch southern alligator lizards. As common as they are said to be around here, I've had very few encounters with them. This may be a result of the few areas I've visited while herping or the lack of hides for me to flip during my trips. Either way, I am determined to find this critter.

I will be posting my adventures here until I find one lol. Here are pics of my first real excursion to find the southern alligator lizard and although I didn't catch any, I did spot two of them mocking me before they scurried away into the underbrush--bastards! At least now I know first-hand that they exist in my area and that I'm not going on some wild goose chase.

To start, pics of the habitat:

good luck with the hunt mate. that lizard looks awsome. keep us posted.

Thanks Manser, I will need all the luck I can get and thanks for waiting

Now for some animal pics!

Went hiking a bit and saw this heron:





Then I spotted this rabbit and they're very fidgety little critters:



I flipped a rotting log and found this little salamander:



Walked some more and found myself lost in someone's avocado grove--I got the hell out of there before I became target practice lol:





Spotted this western fence lizard in situ:



Flipped over some cover...:



Found this nice looking yellow pill bug:



Took it home for a photoshoot:







I also found this ugly looking thing that looks like it belongs in an Alien movie:



Flipped some more and found this soil centipede which was pretty cool:







Best part of the trip though was finding this tangerine tree:





I'm not kidding when I say those were the best tangerines I've ever tasted. I even took home over a pound of it lol:



Thanks for looking

Update:

Mission Accomplished. Target has been found

It was actually under the same board I caught the snake under in this thread: https://scorpionforum.darkbb.com/t6428-found-myself-a-snake

You can check out pics of my new pet in the "Herps and Amphibians" section

So, what's in store for the alligator lizard hunter now? What do you mean? Now we can finally play the game.
Haha, I'm kidding (South Park reference). Seeing as I don't want my new friend to be lonely, the hunt for the second alligator lizard is on

5-17-2011 Update:

I said I couldn't find any alligator lizards, but I think I just wasn't looking hard enough. I've recently been finding quite a few and I've found I just need to get outside more often lol.

Well, on my recent travels I found several more alli lizards which I will post in the Herps section. Here are pics of my recent trips:















Thanks for looking.