Monday, July 18, 2005

Lizard on the Wall

Your Monday Photo Shoot: Your neighborhood is full of wildlife no matter where you live. Catch some of it -- in a picture. - J.S. 

That used to be true for us, a long time ago.  Back on Grannen Road in the late 1980s, our back yard visitors included coyotes, Couch's Spadefoot Toads, Colorado River Toads, Harris's Antelope Squirrels, jackrabbits, desert cottontails, the occasional snake, tortoise or gila monster, and over 50 species of birds.  But that was at the edge of town, outside the city limit, in the foothills of the Tucson Mountains. 
Look what I scared up!Lizard,lizard on the wall

Here in town, in this 1958 housing tract, we get mockingbirds, grackles, mourning doves, lizards, the occasional gecko, spiders and bugs...and that's pretty much it.  But for you, John Scalzi, I went out and looked, again. 

  Who's the timedest of all?
At first I saw nothing but mourning doves, but then I noticed that the edge of Tuffy's wading pool had been smashed by a fallen ladder.  When I lifted the ladder, I scared this little guy.

  He moved!
He's about twice the size of the one that was in my bathtub last week.  He ran a short distance along the wall, but mostly he just stayed still, and hoped I would go away. 

But not very far.

Eventually I did, but not before getting these pictures.  I took a lot of them, because I liked the angles of the bricks, and frankly, when it comes to wildlife in our yard tonight, he was pretty much IT. 

Last shot

Karen
 
P.S.  It's raining! Monsoon, here we come!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Don't discount the mourning doves! They are my favorite animals to save.

Anonymous said...

Hi...I love those little critters!  They eat their weight in skeeters...anything that does that is fine with me...great photos...Sandi  http://journals.aol.com/sdoscher458/LifeIsFullOfSurprises

Anonymous said...

Karen,

Great critter shots. Really. But something is nagging at me. That last shot, presumably looking up towards the roof. There, in the background. The stanchion, with the two rows of barb wire? You've never mentioned that you were living at the county lockup in your Journal...

:D

Hugs and kisses,

wil

Anonymous said...

Interesting texture on your bricks...looks pinstripe.

Anonymous said...

I love these shots :-)

So many reasons why too! Cute little lizard to boot!