July 4th Lizards

The second photographic opportunity of July 4th on Tuesday was the reappearance of a few fence lizards in the back yard.

It’s either been cool and foggy, which has them off in their burrows to conserve heat, or it’s been boiling hot, which isn’t any better for them. I’ve seen a few during that Goldilocks period in late afternoon when the sun’s setting, but not many. But the 4th was lovely, and there were several out lounging along the wooden dividers.

This dude wasn’t having any part of me wandering around and took off for the bushes as soon as I showed up. He did stop to do a couple of pushups to show me who was the boss. I notice under his chin there’s a bit of color, more green than blue, but there’s some blue behind his front legs.

Bailing off into the Mexican feather grass he paused for a second to give me the stink eye.

This dude didn’t run, but was heavily into the pushups as a show of dominance. I was suitably impressed and intimidated. I also note that he’s showing some blue shading on his belly, similar to the bigger members of his species in the yard.