Category Archives: Critters

Yesterday I had pictures of a large fence lizard, something on the order of 10-12 inches long, involved in some territorial displays of his bright blue belly and push ups. The reason he was being so demonstrative was a smaller, younger, medium-sized lizard that was horning in on his spot in the sun along the 6×6 railroad ties at the edge of the yard.

The big guy is over to the right about four feet. The usurper came sneaking up over the top to one of the good spots.

Smaller, nice pattern but much less color – note the green diamonds all over the big guy from yesterday, as well as the blue belly.

He’s also got some weird circular ridges along side of his neck on both sides, just above his shoulders.

He scurried past the big guy, annoying the hell out of him. As soon as the medium guy had come up on the beam the big guy had started his dominance display.  When the medium guy made his run along the beam, then down onto the dirt just as he got to the big guy, then back up onto the beam as soon as he got past him, the big guy scurried under that plant with the purple flowers. Do you see him?

Here you can see the medium-sized guy doing his own push ups, but with no color on his belly showing yet. I’m guessing (I’m no herpetologist) but I suspect that means he’s younger.

The big guy was having none of that challenge. He came whipping out from under that bush, charging at the medium guy, driving him down the beam until he had no choice but to bail over the edge.

Large Lizard – 1, Medium Lizard – 0

But they both live to fight another day.

“This yard ain’t big enough for the two of us!”

Chill, dude! It actually is. Really.

There are a range of lizard sizes around the place. There’s an alligator lizard that I’ve seen a handful of times that I think lives in the garage – it’s close to two feet long. Probably a cousin of his that showed up in the toilet at the old house a few years ago. These guys I refer to as “Fredzillas,” they’re huge and will get your attention if you stumble across one. They’re harmless.

A size down from the humongous alligator lizards are the full-sized fence lizards. Like this guy.

He was out on the back wall this weekend, at the same time I was taking pictures of one of the “small” lizards. (I shared those pictures yesterday.) If yesterday’s lizard was a small, this guy’s a large. Tomorrow I’ll share pictures of a medium-sized lizard who popped up onto this same wall a couple feet away.

This big guy was well aware that I was there, but as long as I stayed five or six feet away and didn’t make any sudden moves, he was okay.

Then the medium-sized lizard showed up and the big guy went into his territorial display. When he did, lo and behold! His bright blue underbelly showed up. He puffed up his belly to display, got up on all four legs as tall as he could, and puffed up his chin.

Then he started doing “push ups.” I’ve talked about how I’ve seen this from time to time, but I don’t think I’ve ever photographed it. To see it, first save this photo, or load it into a photo viewer…

…then do the same for this one. Now flip back and forth between them quickly. Up! Down! Up! Down!

The medium-sized lizard charged at him, but then chickened out and scurried off of the wooden beam, onto the dirt, around this guy, then back up onto the beam on the other side about ten feet away. I guess that’s a win?

Then, after settling for a minute or two in the shade of this flowering plant, I had to move to see him. Between me moving and the smaller lizard just annoying him, he took off.

He chased the medium-sized lizard off of the wooden beam and over the side, then took one final opportunity to turn around, do a couple of push ups, and glare at me.

SORRY!!

Not too hot, not too cold.

This guy has lived through the “popcorn” phase to be big enough and old enough to have a favorite spot.

A little more cool shade if you scooch back, a little more sun if you scooch foreward.

It’s the Goldilocks spot for this dude.

Stretched out along this board, even his belly gets warm with time.

Lizard paradise!

I do love wandering around outside at night. There are the stars, for one. And the lights of the city, and aircraft overhead going out of LAX to parts unknown and into BUR from parts unknown. And the sounds of the critters out there.

The owls are back. They’ve never truly been gone, but they move around a bit, so I haven’t heard them in the last week or two. But tonight and last night I could hear them.

The bunnies are back. In the winter I often only see one every now and then, but they’ve apparently spawned. Tonight there was what looked like one adult and at least two, maybe three little ones.

No doubt what the owls are looking for, if you know what I mean.

And peepers! Down at the bottom of the hill is an area where a couple of streams come together and start Bell Canyon Creek. It’s filled with reeds and brush. We hear a lot of frogs and peepers down there, as well as a pack of coyotes, but now it seems some of the peepers have made it up the hill. I can hear several in our neighbor’s yard, and I swear I can hear one sometimes in the bushes in front of our living room.

Squirrels! Again, it might be time for the little ones to learn how to dodge hawks. (And owls!) Usually we just have the one who eats all of the bird seed, but today, while he was out there in the yard, there were two others up against the sliding glass door that leads out to the porch. Our regular guy ignores me most of the time, but the two peeking into the house were freaked out by my arrival and took off pretty quick.

Get bundled up and go outside late at night. It’s a whole different world.

And with luck, in about fifteen minutes, if the clouds clear just a bit, there will be a rocket leaving the planet behind in my world!

The Long-Suffering Wife was headed out this morning, stopped, backed off, and hollered, “Do you want to come and take a picture of this weird moth?” She knows me so well.

Yep, that’s a weird moth! A big one, too!

And gorgeous markings! I took a few pictures, got fairly close without it flying away. Then I poked it a bit to prompt a departure so that TLSW could get out.

Instead of flying away, it did this! Even more beautiful!

Maybe it’s how or where I poked it? Or I have a pheramone issue that I’m not aware of. Either way, what do I know about the erotic zones of moths? It looked like a mating display to me.

I finally just moved the doormat off to the side, and when I checked a half hour or so later, the moth was gone.

Fly safe! Have fun! Make good decisions!

Finally. The sun, and temperatures kinda sorta warm, in the mid 60’s at least.

It’s nice in the sun, so I’ve started to see some lizards coming out of hibernation. So far most of them have been the “popcorn” type, small (just an inch or two long), newly hatched, existing mainly to be eaten by other lizards or birds or cats.

This guy (can you see it?) was about four inches long and “basking” doesn’t even start to describe the attitude it had.

Right on top of this piece of edging was ideal for soaking up sun, and the width was perfect for it to straddle. Nice and stable, warm, relaxing – there was no way it was going to run away unless I was going to step on him or try to eat him.

I’m not as fast as the hawks or cats, so eating him wasn’t an option, and I’m not clumsy enough to step on him. At least, not today.

Later in the afternoon as I went out the front door I almost stepped on a slightly bigger one. It was more like six inches plus, so it might be a yearling. It had found a spot right by the front door and next to the planter it could hide under, while simultaneously being the perfect spot to catch the last of the sunset rays. I opened the door, saw it, didn’t step on it. It saw me, took off under the planter, and we called it even.

Let the 2023 lizards thrive!