Category Archives: Critters

It seems obvious to me that we’ve had another clutch of lizard eggs hatching in the back yard.

On Friday I was taking a lap around the back yard (my watch had bitched at me) and I stopped when I saw this guy sitting on the side of the garden edging surrounding the big tree.

He seemed to have a greenish tint which I don’t recall having seen recently. Most of the newer lizards are either black or a light sandy tan color.

Just as I was starting to move, I spotted this guy as well.

Also with that green tint, this one off to my left instead of my right.

You can see them both here, their heads sticking up and “eclipsing” the brightly sunlit top surface of the edging material. One’s just in from the left edge of the picture, the other just before the right.

Leaving them to their peace and sunshine, I took just two or three steps to get to the other side of the big tree and found two more on a different piece of edging. Can you see them both?

Exhibit “C” is on top of the edging at the left in the bigger picture.

Exhibit “D” is on the side of the edging, right where the shadow from the roof cuts across the yard.

Still not moving, I looked over toward the patio, near where the trash cans are.

There’s Exhibit “E,” another of the Sandy Tan Clan.

In addition to all of these, when I shifted my feet two others darted from the dirt right by my feet and off into the tall desert grass growing there. That’s seven that I saw, which makes me suspect that there were more that I didn’t see.

These guys are all maybe two inches to two and a half inches long, tops. Out in the front yard, Gandalf and his siblings or sidekicks are all about twice that size. In turn, the driveway lizards that used to hide under the car (haven’t seen them in a few months) were about twice that. Of course, out in the garage (one sighting last year, with another siting in the garden by the front door once) is the household alligator lizard, who’s at least three or four times that, pushing 18″ or more the last I saw him. (The “popcorn” lizards, Gandalf and friends, and the driveway lizards are all Western fence lizards.)

Thinking about the hatching of the little guys, I’m surprised that it’s happening now. It’s going to be getting cooler very soon, and while it’s not snowy here at 1,050 elevation in SoCal, normally the lizards find a hole and hibernate through the cloudy and cool months until it’s time to warm up in spring. These little dudes will have very little time to put on some weight and size (assuming they don’t get eaten themselves) before it’s time to hibernate.

Time for “Fat Lizard” Week!

I went out in front to get the mail yesterday and there were four tiny “popcorn” fence lizards lined up along the sidewalk. I froze but two of them were already scurring for the bushes. One waited a few seconds, long enough for me to take out my phone.

By the time I moved my arms enough to widen out the zoom, he was off into the bushes as well. Only one of the four stayed out in his chosen warm spot in the sun.

Gandalf, who stood his ground even as I walked out about five feet in front of him and then inched in to get a good photo.

The only time I’ve seen him bail and scurry off was today when the phone rang just as I was going out the door. I was so preoccupied with answering and talking that I wasn’t watching where I was going at all, almost stepped on him.

He’s fine, made it to the bushes with room to spare. He may be fearless, but that doesn’t mean he’s stupid!

It started after I had brought in the groceries. Carrying bags in I had cut straight across the grass, but then I had to come back out and move the car a bit. (Not my best parking job – I blame the COVID vaccine. Because I can.) After that I was going to walk to the front door on the sidewalk, but found my way blocked.

I don’t know if it’s one of the new batch of “nature’s popcorn” from the back yard. It’s the right size, but god knows there’s enough of them around so the front yard lizards and the back yard lizards might have totally different populations.

Most of them scatter if I get within ten feet, but this one wasn’t budging, even when I got within five feet or so and pointed out that it was extremely exposed should the raven up on the telephone pole spot it.

Even when I knelt down to get a better shot and wasn’t more than two or three feet away he wasn’t budging. He had his warm spot in the sun and that was that. I thought that he might actually be deceased, but his head kept swinging back and forth to keep an eye on me. THEN he started doing those “lizard push-ups,” which I understand to be a territorial display. Okay, duly noted!

I talked to him for a minute or two. I told him I admired his attitude and hoped to keep him in mind as a role model as Monday rolled around tomorrow.

Then I stood, walked back around the car and went to the front door via the lawn, leaving him still sunning himself and blocking the sidewalk, exerting his dominance.

Of course his name must be Gandalf. Which, I guess, makes me the Balrog.

Fair.

Here’s the same little guy as the other day but with the “big” camera and lens. (Canon DSLR with a 300mm telephoto lense instead of an iPhone 13 Pro Max.)

I don’t know if it’s because I was coming up behind him or not, but I got a lot closer than I did two days ago.

Or maybe it’s just that he had a really good, warm spot and didn’t want to leave if he didn’t have to.

Once he saw me, he kept me in his sights. Lots of side eye.

As long as I moved really, really slowly (and stayed at least seven to eight feet away) he was sorta okay.

That board he’s on is about a half-inch thick (maybe 1.5 centimeters).

That gives you a good scale. He’s not very big at all.

Still bigger than when I first saw him (and his siblings) a week or so ago.

Just hanging out, trying to learn to balance, both physcially on the edge of the board, and in terms of threat assessment, balancing the need to be in the sun and warm vs. being exposed to predators.

Ah, he’s lifting his tail, bringing it out of the shade and into the sunlight. For warmth, or as a prelude to flight?

It was flight. He was off in an instant into the brown grass and essentially invisble.

That’s a phrase I’ve heard Dr. Earyn McGee use more than once on Twitter referring to tiny baby fence lizards. (Also, tomorrow’s Wednesday, so a reminder that Dr. McGee runs the best “game” on Twitter on Wednesday nights. At 17:00 PT you can get her picture of the week with a lizard in there somewhere and try to #FindThatLizard. When you do, let folks know with the #FoundThatLizard hashtag, with the answer revealed at 21:00 PT. It’s fantastic!)

Well, we’ve had another hatching. We got back from Chicago two weeks ago and I’ve noticed them all over the dry dirt of the back yard. Most aren’t more than an inch or two inches long. You almost don’t see them so much as you see their shadows as they skitter for cover.

She calls them that (I believe) because they hatch by the dozens, but the vast majority of them don’t survive long. They get eaten pretty quickly by birds, other lizards, and anything else fast enough to catch them.

Don’t underestimate that speed. The reason these pictures are marginal is because they’re taken from 20+ feet away with my iPhone on full digital zoom. If I get any closer, POOF!! They’re scattering at Warp Nine.

Maybe one or two of them will win the Darwin lottery and make it to a spot in the front yard under the car, as front door dragon, or big boy of the back yard next year.

Not to steal any thunder from Dr. Earyn McGee‘s excellent and wonderful Wednesday evening Twitter game, but can you find the lizard in this picture?

Don’t sweat it if you can’t – I know where it is and I can only just barely see it by blowing the image up to full sized. (Click to enlarge it.)

A bit more zoomed, this is a “normal” view and you might see him now.

He’s stil a challenge, looks a LOT like the bark of the tree, but a fair number of you will be able to find him in this image.

There he is.

Pixelated as all get out if you blow it up to full sized, but he’s pretty obvious at full zoom. I suspect it’s this guy who hangs around the tree to begin with, but I didn’t get a positive ID. He said that he had left his driver’s license in his other skin.

Enjoy the sun, little lizard dude. Winter is coming.