We arrived at our motel in Wilcox in the early evening, with enough time to check in and dump some of our gear in the room before heading out for some road cruising. Getting out of the car Tracey said "Hey! A toad!" and grabbed up a Great Plains Toad, first herp of the trip and a new species for Tracey. Right there in the parking lot - how could we ask for a better start? A handsome toad, I've always thought Bufo cognatus one of the best looking toads around the country.

We headed out on some two-lane roads into the mountains. Late afternoon rains had passed through the area, leaving the roads and the air temperature rather cool. This didn't bode well for a night's road work, and as it turned out we saw nary a herp on the road surface. We did hear a number of calling toads, and stopped to investigate the ditches along the road. I could not locate the toad I heard calling, but Tracey spotted him, a lot higher and further away from the water than I was looking. He was a Red Spotted Toad, Bufo punctatus, and as I got close for a picture, I was amazed by the power of the little toad's trill. It actually rattled the bones in my head!  Here was a resonating, penetrating sound that I had never experienced with American or Fowler's Toads - I felt like it could rattle my teeth loose!

We gave up the ghost around midnight, and headed back to our motel room to get some sleep before our first big day. The blacktop was cool, the snakes were elsewhere, and there was no sense in wearing ourselves to a frazzle on our first day.

Morning found us heading east around the northern end of the Chiricahuas, making our way towards Portal, under a blue sky with wisps of cloud. The horizon lined with an indescribable mass of mountains was a source of amazement to us flatlanders from the Midwest; we hardly knew where to look. None of us had been to this area before, so we had no definite plans or destination other than finding some hiking trails up into the mountains. We stopped for a touristy picture, and ended up getting in a little birdwatching - hummingbirds were buzzing around the trees and shrubs down in the flats. Ocotillo were present here, in this far-west patch of Chihuahuan Desertscrub life zone.

Near Portal we stopped at a visitor's center, which was closed on this weekday, and walked around a bit, spotting several Lesser Goldfinches at the feeder, and a flock of raucous Mexican Jays in the surrounding oak trees. Along the side of an outbuilding I spotted some movement, as a whiptail darted out into the open to seize an insect. This was the Desert Grassland Whiptail, Aspidoceles uniparens, an all-female species that we were well acquainted with from our previous visit. I chased her around the building taking pictures, as she loudly crunched a hard-shelled flying insect of some kind. I then left her to finish her snack in peace.