Reptiles

Yesterday

LEFT: The cold front rolling in yesterday
RIGHT: Early this morning

The cold front rolling in, 3 Jan 2015, afternoon

Early morning, 4 Jan 2015

Early morning, 4 Jan 2015

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It rained a fair bit last night, no thunderstorms. I was leaning over the side gate to get the photo of that cool front rolling in and I don’t know what made me look down … there was our old friend the blue tongue lizard at my feet, though on the other side of the gate.

My heart didn’t even miss a beat.

Blue Tongued Lizard

 

WP_20150103_011Okay, I admit I was a little nervous. There was no way I was getting down to ground level for what would have been fantastic photos of his flicking blue tongue.  I thought he (she) might have been hot, so I picked up the nearest container of water and threw it over him. Maybe that slowed him down, as he appeared to be heading under the gate when he stopped in the gap.  That was the end of the photos.

I don’t know if it is the lizard from earlier in the year. I thought it might have been the one found dead out in the front gutter, some weeks after Vika grabbed it round the tummy … I prefer to think a bird had killed it.  (I resisted the temptation to take a photo of the dead lizard. )

Maybe I will get closer next time! I doubt it.

 

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26 thoughts on “Yesterday”

    • It looks like a goanna doesn’t it, I hadn’t noticed that before Barbara. I suppose a smaller version. I only remembered they are cold blooded after I doused it! Maybe you’ll get rain later in the week, I’m sure your wonderful garden could use it.

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      • I can’t see its legs and it looks awfully fat. Maybe it’s just eaten something. Are goannas and blue tongue lizards the same thing? Thanks for the wish for rain, I keep hoping!

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        • They are all lizards. Just read this morning it is actually the largest of the skinks … and if you look at the shape of the head … no, Barbara, don’t worry about doing that! Sue suggested it might be about to drop little ones.

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          • That makes sense. You may be able to film more of this wonderful creature and its off spring. 🙂 Yes, what we called lizards as children were the very small ones that were always around the stacked wood and in the garden.

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          • I know them now as skinks, because Mr R calls them that, but as kids we called them geckoes. Funny how different localities call them different things. I’ve seen glimpses at night on the windows of a fat little creature with big feet and fat tail, and I think they are true geckoes hunting insects. But, oh so shy!

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  3. Sue says:

    You lucky thing, only enough spots of rain to make the windscreen dirty. Really disappointed. If I was the lizard and I saw you coming with another bucket of water I would head for the hills, probably gave him/her the shock of his life. Looks like he/she has been feeding well or maybe ready to drop some bubs.

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      • Sue says:

        Gee, Maggie is observant, I had to go back to check out the picture and thought you were both mad, then finally spotted it. I was never very good at observing things. Don’t know about lizards but you wouldn’t want to get bitten by a goanna, it seems their mouths are disgustingly full of bacteria.

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  6. Amazing photo of the storm moving in!
    I think I would have been rather startled by the lizard – he (she?) looks like a chubby one!! Is there a reason to be fearful of them? … do they bite?

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    • I have a natural tendency to be scared of big scaly things! They aren’t poisonous and only bite if really, really provoked. I just discovered they are the largest member of the skink family, and can see that now in the shape of the head. Glad you liked my storm photo, Joanne.

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  8. Oh I like the pic of the cold front coming in, I love how fronts like that seem to take over and transform the world. And I’m so glad you flicked up the lizard, I encourage you to go ahead and get closer ones next time…well assuming it’s not poisonous, aggressive, or super scared. 😉 That is a cool creature, I love how wide it is in the middle. We don’t have lizards around here, snakes sure, salamanders are the closest but they’re amphibians. Thanks for sharing, and hey no worries, I probably would have taken a photo of the dead one but thought twice about putting online. 😉

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    • LOL. They haven’t even got sharp teeth, and never attack unless you hurt them. There is a stupid kid on YouTube holding one, shoving the side of his hand near its mouth trying to get it to bite. Eventually it did, and serve the kid right. Hardly drew blood. So I’m not scared for next time … much. 😮

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      • 😀 Yeah sounds like the kid deserved it…makes me wish it did have sharp teeth, or at least that one!

        Perhaps you can share some kind words with it and reassure it you’re in admiration really. 😉 Last time I saw a Salamander I had only done so because I ran it over with my manual-tiller in the garden. I hadn’t seen one in YEARS, and this thing was beautiful. I cried honestly to discover I had done quite a bit of damage to its abdomen but it was still alive. I buried it, sort of, in a different location away from the garden in hopes it would heal as amphibians have been known to do. Perhaps it was wishful thinking but I was hoping…who knows what happened. And clearly I’ve never forgotten it.

        Good luck finding your lizard friend again!

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