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Hmmm upside down pics...
Not to bore you with more Texas front yard wildlife, but we sat in our front room and snapped some photos today after a good rain. The rain seemed to get the bugs moving around and the local lizards went nuts tracking down easy meals on our driveway. Here's a big male green anole displaying on a gate pillar:
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And this is the guy on the other side of the drive way he was eyeballing:
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And the girl in the middle?
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A couple of texas spiny lizards were scooting around the driveway too:
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And the final visitor for the evening - a fast little hummingbird enjoying pink skullcap flowers:
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wow..excellent shots Jim. I see 90% cuban brown anoles here, wish there were more greens.
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Thanks Phil! I've only seen greens here and they are everywhere which is pretty cool. You pretty much cannot go outside without seeing one. The spiny lizards are around a good bit and those whiptails are usually out, but if they even catch a glimpse of you they are gone...it still amazes me to see all this going on in my front yard. Yankee transplant :lol:
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Well I FINALLY got a shot of one our resident whiptail after my kids saw the pair running around our front landscaping. We can usually spot their offspring, but seeing the parents is a treat. They are really shy and bolt at the first sign of a person, so I was lucky to get these two crummy cell phone shots:
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I don't know the specific ID - but based on the local Texas lizard resources my suspicion was a whiptail. There are supposed to be two kinds in our area. This pair has several burrows in our landscaping that they shuttle between. The are freakin' fast! It's so exciting for us to see all these critters flitting about our front yard.
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Gotta love spring in Texas...all the lizards are out and about. Grabbed a few photos while cleaning out the leaf litter from the front yard. The local male greens are out and setting up territories. I guess I set my coffee down in the wrong spot:
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I almost did not notice this guy (Texas Spiny Lizard on a Live Oak trunk):
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These whip tails are my favorites - they are fast and skittish. It wasn't too warm yet so this one kept coming out to sun itself. We have a breeding pair living under a big rock out front.
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I counted at least 4 hatchlings tooling around with the pair this morning. Adult on the left, larger juvie on the right:
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Awesome thread Jim !!
Texas people....post some Horned Lizard pics !! My fav lizard next to Geckos and Chameleons.
If I lived out west, I'd have a Rock Garden fenced in yard with populations of horned lizards.
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It's fall hatch time down here and there are a few dozen tiny greens darting around our yard. This little guy was on the back porch....
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Here's an unusual one that was hanging on the fence post tonight:
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I envy you and your local reptile populations
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These pics are awesome! I live in Arizona and there are Texas horned lizards everywhere It seems. It might a different species or something but judging by the pictures on google it's the same kind we see running around here. They are really fast and extremely hard to catch but they do look amazing
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Jim, that appears to be a male Anolis all 'fired up' and combating other males and in mating condition. The ridge and odd color is key and that black spot behind the eye is also indicative of male vs male stress and fighting. It will disappear.
Now lets see some Horned Lizards!
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I got a vacation to AZ coming up in the end of June beginning of July. Maybe ill get to see some of these reptiles in their native habitat. Ill bring my bearded dragons. They would enjoy the trip.