Wednesday, December 1, 2010

A Lizard And A Frog


Common garden lizard
Lizards are seen throughout the year but now that the temperature has come down  they like to bask in the sun. And every time I go out to the back yard or the front yard, I see a few of them in various stages of basking-in-the-sun.  Here's one I saw the other day on a stack of to-be-reused-old window frames.
You can see from the picture that there's a bit of old skin left on this lizard's neck. Unlike snakes, lizards shed their skin in patches. Before lizards shed their skin they tend to look dull and white patches appear on their bodies. Lizards eat the skin that comes off and the nutrients in it are beneficial for them.                                                                                                                                            
            


And here's a backyard resident, so called  because that's where I often see it. I'm happy with the butterflies, bees, and dragonflies, but it's nice to see some more variety around my yard.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your photos are incredible. Such clarity and detail. We have lots of small lizards here. They entertain my cats!

Ginny Hartzler said...

Amazing pictures!They both look pretty mean. I had no idea that lizards eat their skin! That is a frog and not a toad? I think the little toads are cute, but I don't know how to tell the difference, I just thought that frogs are green and toads are brown, but I'm sure that's not true, because the little tree frogs are all kinds of colors.

Jim Groble said...

Your photos are wonderful. jim

lotusleaf said...

I like the expression on the frog's face!

indicaspecies said...

Your photographs show so many details, thanks for sharing.

Lavender and Vanilla Friends of the Gardens said...

I admire all the wildlife resident in your garden. Interesting facts about the lizards. The frog or toad looks adorable. The photography is always fantastic.

Nature Rambles said...

Thank you all so much for stopping by. As pointed out by Ginny, I think the "frog" in this post is actually a toad. Sometimes one tends to overlook the most common things. I hope this blog will give me the opportunity to learn as I post more, and also to correct any misconceptions I might have about common backyard residents.