Showing posts with label lizards. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lizards. Show all posts

Sunday, June 17, 2018

Recent Wildlife in the Yard

Seems we have lots of alligator lizards and I've posted more than a few photos of them on this blog.   One thing about alligator lizards -- they're always going to give you attitude.

This  is a young bear we've seen several times already this  year.  They look sleepy and lumbering until you see them climb a tree.   They are very agile and can easily go straight up that pine tree in this picture.

The picture is poor, but this  is a bobcat we watched calmly walk across our  yard, jump up on the fence and  disappear into  the neighbor's yard.   This is maybe the third or fourth time we've seen a bobcat here.  This was a brief but fun sighting.

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Baby Alligator Lizards

Alligator lizard eggs hatch in late summer and early fall and it is about this time each year that I see these young alligator lizards with their amazing tails.  


Unless eaten by a cat, hawk, snake or another lizard, these young alligators will grow to maturity in about 18 months and reach possibly 16-20 inches long including their tails.  They'll eat a lot of insects along the way and will develop markings on their back.  They will probably lose their tails, grow a new tail, and grow up to look like this:

So, there's my 2011 lizard post.  

Saturday, September 4, 2010

Young Alligator Lizard Cooling Off

It was so hot today that even the lizards wanted to cool down. Here's a young alligator lizard hitching a ride in the pool on a pine needle. He had hold of that pine needle and seemed content to just float around.

Alligator lizards are actually good swimmers. They swim with a vigorous undulating motion that resembles a snake in the water.

Once out of the water, the lizard paused before scurrying away. I like this lizard profile because it shows how long their tails are in relation to their bodies.

Two years ago one of my first posts was of a young alligator lizard. California Herps says that these lizards lay their eggs in May to July and that the eggs hatch in late summer or early fall. Judging from other alligator lizards I've found around here, this recently hatched reptile will get much bigger and will lose the orange stripe down its back.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

More Alligators

Last weekend we saw another alligator lizard. This one decided to show up in the middle of a birthday party for our now 7 year old daughter. There were a bunch of kids gathered 'round watching this reptile as it froze on some green siding. Hadn't planned to do Animal Planet for the party, but with this willing subject, and armed with lizard research from earlier posts, I couldn't resist. We could easily see the regenerated tail. We talked about how these lizards can detach their tails when threatened, and how the tail then wiggles around distracting the threat while the lizard gets away. Good stuff.

It is egg laying season for alligator lizards. According to California Herps, these lizards lay eggs sometime from May to July with babies hatching in late summer.

I'm not the only one doing lizard posts. There's a nice one up over at Ramshackle Solid.

Monday, April 19, 2010

From the Lizard Files: Alligators

We see a lot of lizards, but it's news when we see an alligator lizard. I found this one Sunday while pulling weeds in a damp area of the yard. He's twisted up here in the bottom of a bucket getting ready to spring to freedom.

Check out the regenerated tail. These lizards can drop their tails when threatened and scamper away from danger leaving the tail behind to wriggle around and occupy the would-be threat. The tail then grows back, but as you can see here, looks a bit different from the original.

I looked back in my lizard file and saw this alligator my son caught two years ago and kept in a lizard habitat for a couple of days. You can see here how long their tails really are.

Another of the alligators we've seen. I think this is maybe a teenage alligator lizard.

Mostly we see fence lizards like this one I saw yesterday.

And I had to put up this fence lizard from the files. As you might gather from comparing the photos above -- alligator lizards have notoriously bad dispositions and are prone to bite while sleepy-eyed fence lizards tend to be more placid. In fact, the guy or gal above looks a little like Elmo.