It seems our place is loaded with little lizards lately, they are scuttling and scurrying across the walkways, the garden paths, everywhere I look they are looking for a warm spot to sun themselves or a bug to eat. They are mostly fence lizards, really quite precious, only about 1.5 inches long. You can see the one below is next to some rebar which is about a half inch wide. I have to watch out to keep from stepping on them. At one point yesterday I could see eight of them at once in a 10- square foot area! Sometimes they go into a little trance and I can pick them up.
I've also been seeing a multitude of baby toads everywhere, red, black, brown, I think they are all American Toads from looking at the knobs on their heads and believe they change colors based on their surroundings. I don't ever remember seeing so many baby toads. Perhaps the amphibians are trying to make up for time lost during our drought of the past two years, once the rains came on, so did the egg laying and hatching.
We also have these swallowtail caterpillars eating up the dill but I will let them because there were fewer butterflies this summer than ever and I think that must also be linked to the drought. But who knows- could be some other environmental factor that's got their numbers down. Whatever- I'm hoping these last ones will have enough time to form a butterfly before cold weather sets in.
No comments:
Post a Comment