May 23
Lizard!
A fence lizard! I love getting into push-up contests with them.
seen from Canada
seen from Austria
seen from Spain
seen from Austria
seen from Germany
seen from China
seen from United Kingdom
seen from Spain
seen from Aruba
seen from Belgium
seen from Malaysia
seen from United States
seen from Malaysia
seen from United States
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from Angola
seen from Sudan
seen from Singapore
seen from Italy
Lizard!
A fence lizard! I love getting into push-up contests with them.
Western Fence Lizard Sceloporus occidentalis
10/2023 Los Angeles County, California
hsug1747 via iNaturalist, CC-BY-NC
Fence Lizards
For all the time that I have spent exploring and observing nature, I am terrible at herping--looking for reptiles and amphibians. Part of it is my reluctance to disturb habitat by turning over rocks and logs and such, but I also just haven't trained my eyes to watch for better-camouflaged species. So unless the animal is in motion, I often just walk on past.
Thankfully yesterday's tour included someone who was really good at seeing these little southern fence lizards (Sceloporus consobrinus). It was a cool morning, so they were hanging out in sunny spots, and remained still enough that everyone could get photos. And it was a good reminder to me to slow down a bit more, and work on getting better at looking for the less obvious.
I Caught a Lizard. Illustrated by Artur Marokvia. 1967.
The True Book of Reptiles, written by Lois Ballard and illustrated by Irma Wilde, 1957.
My dear friend, the Eastern Fence Lizard, who ran into our garage and then pretended to be a mulch when I caught her. Very unappetizing 10/10