Out for a walk with Larrold. An unremarkable lesser ridge among the rumpled hills. Chapparal, pine, gravel and grit.
Then a flash of tiny red life running cumbersome from the fringe of the trail. Startling in its ochre hue and firing a frantic scramble to capture the specimen amid a tangle of woody mountain weeds.
Fortunately, the little bugger resorted to playing dead for defense and made the apprehension possible.
Sometimes, when this small, horny toads easily get lost in the duff and are unfindable despite their relatively big, wide-gauged bodies. They also hide buried in sand.
Photo imagery doesn’t quite convey how striking the coloration appeared in the field when seen for the very first time.
The lizard would blend in better out in the purply-reddish sandstone of the Sespe Formation of Ventura County, but it was seen in the Santa Ynez Mountains behind Santa Barbara, where the sandstone is predominantly golden, which happens to match the common coloration of most local horny toads.
I have never seen a red horned toad before, ever, or even heard tell of one being seen around these parts. I wonder how uncommon, if not rare, such a red morph might be.
Decades into our Santa Barbara adventure and we’re still seeing new things out there for the first time.
The search continues.
Related Posts:
Jack Elliott's Santa Barbara Adventure 
My first reaction to your Horny toad encounter was anger and distress. I had to reread your post in order to understand that by “capture” and “apprehension” you were referring only to photographing this reptile.
Whew.
I really HATE it when people engage in catch and release of wildlife. It’s a sure bet merely being photographed was also stressful to the animal.
That said: Happy you got to see a Horned toad and thank you for sharing the pics.