As our back yard drops off down the hill to the back yard of the house below us, there are a couple of retaining walls made with railroad ties. By mid-morning these are all exposed to the sun, and they get toasty. They make an ideal place for the lizards to bask, soaking up photons with a quick escape route just over the edge and down into the cracks between the ties.
This dude was living the good life, obsessed with something down the hill. It wasn’t the one that’s missing its tail that I saw a couple days ago – it was there with this dude, about five feet to the right.
Whatever this one was looking at, it had its full attention since he was ignoring me, just four or five feet away. Now, **I** know that I’m not a threat, but generally the lizards don’t and they’re bugging out as soon as I get within about ten feet.
I finally cleared my throat and shuffled my feet a little, and got this nasty side eye look that said, “I know you’re there, don’t you see me ignoring you?!” About that time the shadow of a raven passed over and Lizard Attitude Dude was over the side and gone in a flash.
Maybe he did somehow know that I wasn’t interested in eating him whole, where that raven probably had a different opinion. Life on the edge, with the quick and the snack.
We Love The Stars Too Fondly 