Tales from the Garden

Any “fly on the wall” in my home garden or at the dancehall garden might be startled by hearing my sudden squeal of delight whenever I see a lizard… and I know for sure that the lizards are surprised and probably pretty frightened!   But I just can’t help it, because I love lizards.     During my first autumn in Arivaca, I went out to my studio one morning and there on my screen door was this good-size Ornate Tree Lizard.   What a welcome! And the longer I’ve lived around here, the more species of lizards I get to see, and I wish I had more time right now to research more about them all.   It’s definitely one of the things on my “nature to-do list” for when the dancehall is complete!   In the meantime, I am greatly enjoying watching them scramble around on and under the downed logs and rocks in my gardens, pump their chest up and down like a body-builder, freeze perfectly still on a tree trunk, or dart across my path.          Sonoran Spotted Whiptail Lately, my m