Anole II

Sep. 24th, 2014 07:06 am
neverspent: art of field, fence and tree (farm fence)
Happy Autumn! It actually feels like autumn here, for a few days at least.

I cannot get over how cute my lizard friend is. The day after I discovered him, he had moved to the screen door, attracted, I assume, by the bugs that like to congregate there. What an attitude.

Anole attitude



More lizardy cuteness )

Anole

Sep. 21st, 2014 12:41 am
neverspent: vintage art of ferns (Default)
Look at the cute lizard I spotted at the Farm today! It's a northern green anole and supposedly it's common in its range, but I rarely see them. The common ones are the gray prairie lizards and sleek skinks. This fellow was brownish with green splotches, so I suppose he was changing colors. Neat!

IMGP2908
neverspent: vintage art of ferns (Default)
Well, hello handsome young skink! I'm sorry that my autocorrect thinks you're a skunk.

Untitled
Plestiodon fasciatus
neverspent: vintage art of ferns (ferns)
Unusually early springwatch: today on a walk, I found a pretty little snake and a butterfly, both deceased. (The snake was very fresh, the butterfly not.)

February butterfly February #snake

On Tuesday down at the edge of the mountains, I saw a wild plum blooming.
neverspent: cave art of an antelope (antelope)
The zoo has a new pair of large tortoises. They're covered with impressive spikes and spines, like dinosaur tortoises! But I'm still most fond of the giant tortoises. They're so huge and the male especially seems so wise. Today I took photos of the female, who appeared to be doing laps around the enclosure. (I didn't need to use an action setting on the camera, at least.) I noticed she had a lot of greenish brown mud on her legs.

Tortoise


The enclosure has a broad, shallow concrete dip that's filled with clear water, and soil area below it where I suppose the overflow goes. I have never seen the tortoises set claw in the concrete pond, but they seem to love the mud pit. They will sit in it for hours, as far as I can tell, their toes digging into the mud, their wrinkled heads and necks partially submerged in the brown, murky water. If I were a tortoise, I think I'd prefer the mud, too.
neverspent: vintage art of ferns (Default)
Strong storms all night Sunday to Monday, so everything was muddy when I went for a walk with the dogs. But it was still cloudy, so the light was diffuse and easy on the eyes. We scared up a pileated woodpecker in the woods. They're always impressive – giants among woodpeckers, with bright red heads and mostly black bodies. They're the ones that get confused with the ivory-billed woodpecker, but they don't have as much white on their backs and wings.

Later when I opened an old bag of pine bark mulch to spread on a flower bed I planted Saturday, I found a lot more wildlife: centipedes, other creepy crawlies, and, delightfully, two skinks. One was a full-sized adult, with a fat body and gorgeous copper stripes lined with black. The other was smaller and still had its bright blue tail. It wasn't easy getting a photo!

American five-lined skink

Profile

neverspent: vintage art of ferns (Default)
neverspent

September 2014

S M T W T F S
 123456
78910111213
14151617181920
212223 24252627
282930    

Syndicate

RSS Atom

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags