Lovely Lizards

By


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 most frequent sightings have been of  Sonoran Spotted Whiptails. I don't know why they're called spotted instead of striped, but I do know that they really do whip their tails when they run!  


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Northern Alligator Lizard

 
In my years as a nature educator at Magnuson Park in Seattle, I was lucky enough to make a living leading kids and adults on nature walks, camps, field trips, and classes through all parts of the park.  This included Promontory Point, one of the only urban areas in the entire Puget Sound region where Northern Alligator Lizards still thrive.  One of the ways that these amazing lizards have adapted to the Pacific Northwest climate is that after mating, the females incubate and hatch their eggs inside their body in order to keep them warm during the cool, wet spring and early summer!  Sometime in August or early September, the young crawl out of their mother’s body for the first time to go off on their own.   

 

Cayman Island lizard
When visiting my family in the Cayman islands in 2019, this lizard with amazing curly toes appeared on our 2nd story balcony!  The tiles were splashed with red glaze, so don't worry that it does look like blood.

My cousin Alida will confirm that I squealed with delight when I saw this one too - ha ha!!!

 

Keep your eyes open for a new article with more details on Arivaca’s lovely lizards next year, but in the meantime,  hope you enjoy feasting your eyes on these fun photos!  

 

 


Popular posts from this blog

The Moon, Earth, & Sun... and vultures

By
Image
Last fall, I had two very magical encounters with vultures, and I am sharing them now in honor of this year's Arivaca Vulture Festival! On the morning of September 30th, I woke before dawn with the glow of the full moon coming through the windows. Known annually as the Harvest Moon, this one was also a "super moon", and I stepped out onto the patio to gaze upon it as it set over the giant Cottonwood trees.   Its brightness far out-shined the fading stars and the glow of dawn that was beginning on the east end of the sky. The breeze was crisp and cool, and the smell of fall leaves filled the air.  What an amazing time to be outside, with nothing but nature all around.  Then I saw that the vultures were out!  Hundreds of them were playing in the night wind, silently gliding, some only 50 feet over my head.  I had never seen such a sight.  On a typical morning, my routine includes getting up around dawn and having plenty of time to drink my morning cof...
Read more

How Did I Get Here?

By
Image
The first Bards and Bratz event at the Arivaca Dancehall happened on the afternoon of October 1st, with the theme "How the Heck did I Get Here? and Why am I Still Here?"  I decided to write a poem for the occasion, and below is Part 1, accompanied by photos of the Arivaca Cienega taken in 1993 during the very first trip Uno and I made to this area: HOW DID I GET HERE?                   Frosty, pink dawns in the Cienega; Red-winged Blackbirds calling from the Cattails; Deer standing in knee-high March rain; New leaves on the Cottonwoods; Black Vultures playing with the wind; Ginormous Barrel Cactus; Mergansers and Buffleheads in the Willow Pond; Pied-bills in the Grebe Pond; Lark Sparrows darting in and out of the trails; White Kites and Northern Harriers hovering overhead; The warm warm sun, shining on Vermillion flycatchers; The bubbling of the creek over rocks and downed logs,   a ribbon of g...
Read more

In Living Color

By
Image
 This summer has been a magnificent feast for the eyes, with an abundance of butterflies and bees in my home garden as well as in the Pollinator Garden at the Arivaca Dancehall.  In the midst of 19 months of hard and dusty work on the dancehall project, the sight of all this natural beauty has refreshed and renewed my aching body and brain more times than I can count.  I am grateful to all the winged wonders that have crossed my path during that time, and in so doing have brought their living color into my life and lightened my load in every way.  Below are some of the "flying jewels" that I have managed to photograph and video during the last couple of months.   These are actually Queen butterflies at the Arivaca Library :)
Read more