Heeere Leeezard, leeezard, leeezard

Well, I got a neat surprise searching in one of my pots for rolly polly's. (see this thread http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/593307/) if your curious why rolly-polly's). I picked up one pot where the soil had collapsed on one side. I looked in the drainage holes and found only one rolly polly. I then decided to pull the small clump of daylilies out of the pot and do some investigating. I pulled the clump out easily because it's a newer one and the soil was dry. I then proceeded to dump the soil from the gallon pot into a 3 gallon pot. When I turned the gallon pot right side up, I did not see any rolly-polly's in the bigger pot, but noticed egg shaped white things about 1/2 inch in diameter. I reached down to poke at it thinking it was a mushroom, when something's head popped up in the soil!!

I jumped back and squeeled. LOL Then when I realized it was a lizard, I ran into the house to get my camera and my daughter . I came back and she was still in the same place as the picture shows above. I kind of moved the soil around to get her to come out for a picture, but she would not. My daughter grabbed her tail to uncover her and let her right back down. Here she is...

Here are two eggs. I did not touch them after finding her because I did not want to scare her anymore.

This message was edited Jun 23, 2006 9:42 PM

I then took that pot and soil and put her back in the protected area where my other pots are and just got new soil for the daylilies. I sure hope she does not abandon the eggs and nest now that it has been disturbed. I need her to stay and eat more rolly-pollies!

I came back in the house and looked her up. It looks like she is a ground skink. Very cool!

What a nice discovery, and great photos! I have been reading about lizards lately to identify what we have. I've read that female skinks lay eggs about once a month all summer long, and I don't think they don't stay with the eggs until they hatch. (I guess with that schedule they need to move on for the next batch!)

So if she does leave, it's probably not because you've disturbed anything. She's just not a stay-at-home mom!

I hope you get to see the eggs hatch, that would be really cool.

Edited to add...I would have had a heart attack when it poked its head up!!

This message was edited Jun 23, 2006 8:53 PM

That's great news! I am going to cover them back up with a little soil tomorrow if she has not. Then I will keep an eye on the pot. I do hope they make it. Previously, I have seen only one lizard here - about 2 months ago. It was gone before I could get much of a look at it. I believe it was a chameleon type though because it's back was orange like the rusty old edging it was next to.

I am sure not a lizard expert, but I think you have green anole lizards in your part of Texas, and they can change color. Here's a link to that guy:
http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/huntwild/wild/species/anole/

Aren't lizards fun? :-)

It could be him. I am not sure because he was so quick. My dog was beside me when I saw him and went into attack mode. I turned around to grab her collar to stop her and he was gone into the extra gutter drain pipe that's next to the shed.

Yes, they are great. These are the first I have seen in any homes I have own. I had seen them as a kid, but not in the last 9 years at any of the other two homes we owned. I am loving the wildlife!

Oldmudhouse, Yes! I have always been very fond of lizards! I kept horned toads and iguanas as pets. Always wanted a Texas Alligator lizard, but never did get one. Texas Alligator lizards are NEAT STUFF! LOL! Nice skink there, sweezel! I was just a tad disappointed, because before I enlarged the photo, I thought maybe you had a Texas Alligator lizard. But hey, skinks are great, too! ;+>)

Sorry, If I ever get to see a horned lizard myself, I will get a picture for you! :)

gooberpie, when I was in elementary school in New Mexico (about 40 years ago, but let's not talk about that) it was common to see lots of horned lizards in the desert. We called them horny toads. Little boys in my school used to wear the baby ones on their shirts like decorations since they'd just cling to the cloth with their little toes; they'd hang there all day like a badge. I remember the color of the little horny toads as very pale, almost white. Sounds a little mean now, but at the time I didn't think anything of sitting next to a kid with a horny toad hanging on his shirt front.

I haven't seen one in years, and I think some types of horned lizards are endangered species now, aren't they? If I saw a little boy with one on his shirt now, I'd whop him and take it away!
Sheri

Don't know how we got on horned toads. It were Alligator Lizards I was mainly talking about. But if we're going to talk horned lizards, horned toads, I have to say I think they are cute little guys. I had a couple when I stayed at my aunt's house, and when I'd put a meal worm in front of one of them, he'd sneak up on it, eye it hungrily and then quick---SNAP it up and smack his little lizard lips an' wait fer another'n! ;=>)

It was me. I typed Horned, probably because I came across lots of pictures of Texas Horned Lizards while trying to find the species of mine and my brain was stuck on those. LOL

I am never moving to TX..... I will enjoy the wonderful wildlife vicariously through everyone's pictures. Here in Ohio, our worst fear is that a squirrel will upset the birdfeeder - LOL !

Oops, my fault gooberpie, I think I veered off the alligator lizard path onto horned toads when I read this sentence in your post:

Wow Sweezel! That is much bigger than rolly pollies! I think I would have screamed too! So it's a "skink"? And it eats rolly pollies? Keep it!

Not as cool as a lizard but I had 3 huge toads jump out (one at a time) of a spot where they had uprooted a Moss Rose plant and I did some screaming. lol And I usually only make noise when a June Bug gets stuck on me.

Well, not only rolly polly's, but other bugs too. I am sure she is happy with all the rolly polly's back there though. I had to laugh at three toads jumping out at you. That would have been quite a shock.

I checked on her this morning and she had moved all of her eggs up to the top of the soil and was laying on them. There were 7 eggs! I will try to get a picture in a bit. I did not want to disturb her earlier. Pretty cool. :)

Ohhh, sweezel .. you must be some type of special PC @ your new home, nowadays!
.. HeeHee .. (privileged character)

What an exclusive honor bestowed to you!! Ultimately, another '1st' for me to witness also .. thru your tales and photos!

Can/will you mind giving us an idea of how large/small her eggs are (something that the likes of me can 'picture' for comparison) -?-

A couple of weeks ago, there was one huge-bellied Western Fence Lizard that I know just had to be loaded with eggs. But she'd managed to ditch me every time I tried to follow, to see where she was goin'. (figgerin' she was lookin' to lay her eggs somewhere). Her belly was sooooo rotunda - moving her hind leggers sure seemed to be very difficult. (besides, I swear I'd hear her panting and grunting! Hee) But she still managed to find her overdrive gear and lose me, with no trouble! I quit - too old to keep up with her antics. She was a sly ol heifer too tho' ... LOL

Will sure be lookin' for any/all updates .. especially the photos!!

- Magpye

This message was edited Jun 24, 2006 3:39 PM

Great photos Sweezel . . . hope ya get to take us some of the hatchlings :)

I couldn't help from getting tickled at ya when I read the 2nd post (@squeeled) LMBO :D I guess that would tend to spook ya when you're expecting rolly pollys

Yeah I think that the Horn'd Toads are pretty much extinct in most parts. We too used to play with them as kids - some 40 years ago - my how time flies!!! I haven't seen but one since I was a kid and it was by pure chance on a ranch in deep South Texas (about 10 years ago) I have heard that there are not many left around. Probably due to their friendly & harmless nature, all us 'country kids' thought they were our little toys.

I saw a pretty cool lizard out on my wood fence a few days ago. One I'd never seen the likes of before - and I thought I'd seen all the lizards native to this area. Still not sure what it was. I got a few pics but it wouldn't let me get close enough to get any really good ones. I'll attach the best of what I got. Anyone ever seen one of these?

Speak'n of rare critters . . . did you catch the post I just added of that Coral Snake encounter I had yesterday :)

Mags, they were about 1/2 an inch wide, 3/4 inch long. I went out there to finish working on my pots today and she was out of the pot and the eggs were not showing. Once she moved on (hopefully just looking for food), I dug in the pot with my finger to see if the eggs were still there. I found one and covered it back up after seeing it. Hopefully, she is coming back.

I did see another skink while going through more pots. He was also living in a pot that was missing soil on one side. This one did not have eggs and he was smaller. He was very obviously different colored, and I think I just found him - a Five-lined skink. He looked just like the one in the picture on the left of this page. http://www.zo.utexas.edu/research/txherps/lizards/eumeces.fasciatus.html His tail was light blue, and he was very pretty. Of course I did not have my camera with me and he was gone before I could get it. Now I wonder if the female was also a Five-lined skink, not a ground skink.

Thanks GD. It would be so great to see the hatchlings. I am down there every other day watering so I will be watching for them.

I am not sure what your lizard is, but here is a great website I discovered today with Texas lizard pictures. Maybe you will find him there. http://www.zo.utexas.edu/research/txherps/lizards/

Just read about your snake and posted. :)

Kool Deal :) Thanks for the link and reply :)

Oh wow GD, I'm very familiar with every lizard that exists here in South Texas...but for the life of me...I can't figure out what sort of lizard is in your photo. It looks like a red headed agama that I use to have...but they're natives of Africa! Or it could be a big Fence Lizard which I have alot of, around my house. Hmm...quite a puzzler tho. I miss "horny toads" too. The last one that I saw was a newborn that I picked up deep in the brush country near Tilden. That was about 9 years ago. They were indeed so plentiful when we were kids. We use to feed them red ants, which you don't see much of either! Dadgum fire ants are mostly to blame, along with a loss of habitat :(
(We were always scared that a horny toad would squirt blood out of its eyes at us..lol)

Green Anole lizard - so that's what they're called! Thanks oldmudhouse for posting the link. They are so beautiful. I think they look like velvet. We have lots of them around here. Other lizards and skinks, too.

Our dobi-lab mix, Sugar, just hates lizards. Drives her out of her mind. If she sees one she can't reach through the fence she justs barks herself crazy. She has a habit of killing them, then carrying around the bodies for 2-3 days like a pet - taking it with her where ever she goes. We laugh and say her pet's name is "Pancake" (due to their flatness). Would prefer she not kill them, but they are so plentiful here there's just no way we can prevent it.

That's funny about the horned toads. I remember always being afraid of them shooting blood out too. Can they really do that??

I saw one either last summer, or the one before, while driving about 10 miles from here on the side of a country road. It took a few seconds for it to register with my brain but when it did I turned the car around hoping it would be there but it was gone.

Neither of my kids have ever seen one. It's strange that the TCU Horned Frogs now seem to have some sort of mythical creature (to this generation) as their mascot. I have heard also that it's because they eat red ants and the fire ants kill the red ants.

lol konkreteblond,
I never saw a horned toad shoot blood out of its eyes....but I know they do (or did :( as a defense mechanism. It seemed that we always saw them along creek banks, dirt roads, etc. The males had sort of white or yellow spots on their bellys and could get as large as my hand. I sure miss the little guys.... As I wrote earlier, I was lucky enough to find a hatchling out in the brush and was able to show my fiance from Boston. I miss red ants too...! Am I the only one? lol...Sure they would cut up a tree or two...but I use to watch them for hours...especially after I put a sugar cube near their hole...lol Ahhh, childhood during a hot Texas summer... :):)

LOL... sometimes it seems like watching ants is all there is to do in our heat. I make my kids go outside but they probably wouldn't be able to sit still long enough to watch ants, which is one reason I make them go out, and why I haven't replaced or fixed the broken XBox. I don't have a dvd player or handheld video games for them in the car either. Too much stimulation! Oops, hijacking... lol

Sweezel, how big is this skink? I've never heard of them, just Anoles. They can't be too big to live in your pot. I had Anoles and a couple of Fence Lizards but haven't seen any of them in a while. I can't see why they wouldn't want to stay in my garden either. Oh well, I have BIG toads!

Hijack away! :) I only have one kid at home now, but she is outside more since we moved. I think it's the big shade trees and large yard that help. She is 12 now, but still loves her trampoline. She still jumps on it, but also hangs out with friends on it, talks on the phone or just lays on it relaxing. :( She also likes our hammock for the same thing. Since summer started she has been playing the game cube again though. :-/

Miss Skink was about 6 or 7 inches long head to tail, the other was about 5 inches, so they must have been curled up pretty good. There was a large space dug out in the pot with roots exposed. I read that they like wooded areas with moist areas of piled leaves or decaying logs. The "woods" are behind this pile and I guess the moist soil worked since I have no leaf piles. There are large decaying logs by the creek though. I have a few pots with soil in them piled haphazardly in a corner (plants that have died). I might leave those for the lizards even after all my potted plants have been moved.

:O Red Ants? Ya'll want some Red Ants? I've got plenty . . . both the ground cruisers and the leaf cutter type . . . but it's a 'Take One - Take ALL Sale' :D

Ya'll must just be too far north to be able to 'enjoy' these guys. I've always been able to find a Red Ant bed pretty easy out south of town. And I don't really mind the regular ones, it's the leaf cutters that get on my bad side pretty fast. The can strip a tree of all it's leafs in a single night (as I'm sure most of you know) and they tend to select the tree that you don't really want stripped. lol

Luckily the ones I have out here on this place seem to prefer the fresh growth on these useless Chinaberry trees and that don't really hurt my feelings much. I usually do a good deal of trimming on those myself, so they can have all of them they want. It's when they start up my Chinese Tallow Tree that I have to get rowdy with them.

As far as I know, there's no product on the market that will get rid of those mini-tree trimmers. But I do know a few tricks to combat them if anyone is having trouble with them, just let me know. ;)

Anyway . . . this thread somehow didn't get put on my 'watch list' so I'm a bit late here, but what's new. lol

Sweezel, I did check out the link you posted, but didn't find my lizard there. So I e-mailed the contact person the photo I posted here and he wasn't sure either. Said it may be a Fence Lizard of some sort, but he wasn't sure because the photos weren't detailed enough. Of course I told him up front I was afraid of that, but he gave me a couple of links to check anyway. No luck there either . . .
So .... TxT . . . if you happen upon anything that looks like this guy, I'd be curious to know. Meanwhile I'll see if I can sneak up on him for some better pics the next time I see him around. btw- I'm leaning towards some sort of Fence Lizard since the only time I see him, he's on my old wood fence. :)

Oh and FYI - the bit about Horned Toads shooting blood from their eyes, that's indeed fact not fiction. They do that when they get stressed out - basically a defensive action.

Yep, GD
I'm leaning on a big ole male fence lizard. Its hard to tell in the photo but is it that grey/brown color that they have? Like I said...it almost looks like a red-headed agama that I use to have...but they are African in origin...! :D I've been seeing some big guys running up and down some old mesquite trees near the crispy cow pasture..seems breeding season isn't quite over...I guess...lol. And call me weird...but I got all happy with myself when I found a pregnant anole in my back garden yesterday..! woo hoo... (it don't take much to make me happy...lol)

I actually found a female fence lizard hiding in a corner in our garage. (Thank goodness a scorpion didn't find her first..lol) I just picked her up and took her to the garden. I've handled alot of fencies and I've never had one try to bite. Now anoles on the other hand!.....I can still see the little triangle teeth marks in my fingers. Use to dangle em' off of my ear lobes too...lolol. Told you I was (am) a tomboy...err...tomdoy...tomboy. ;) The only time that I ever caught a racing lizard is when it ran into a coke can in 5th grade...lol

And yes, GD...I do love red ants... :p Just think of them as "nature's gardeners", lol. As far as china berry trees...I'd let them munch on them as much as they wanted too as well..if I were you..lol Ack..I'll take red ants over the fire stingers any ole day... :)

TxTur,

Thanks for the giggle. I haven't thought about lizards dangling from earlobes in years. Never brave enough to do it myself, but sure got a kick out of watching!

Debra

lol fleur... As I mentioned on some other thread, I was a shameless tomboy...lol Still am...if I really think hard about it. :) I guess that I was the only girl who was brave enough to dangle 'em off of my ears...because it hurt like the dickens...lol. I would show them off to my mother and ask her to admire my green earrings. I can't imagine how angry the lizards must have been! lol...I know they would clamp down even harder now and then...hehe

This message was edited Jun 28, 2006 9:14 PM

lol TxT . . . no wonder your D's & B's get mixed up . . . you wear the wrong color ear rings :P lol
btw . . . bring you a coffee can and come load up all these red ants you like :D

hmmmmm . . . well I'm not too sure what to think about this lizard I've got hang'n out on my fence out here. . . ya maybe right . . . he could be some sort of fence lizard, but none like I've ever seen - in photos or other wise.

I've got lots of stripe'd racers and green earring lizards out here but this is the only one like this I've ever seen . . . here or anywhere for that matter. And it's the colors that caught my eye and it's too bad he was so skittish. I couldn't get close enough from the sunny side to get a good photo that shows his true colors. He had more of a rusty red colored neck and head and a goldish green back and top side. I blew the image up a bit, see if this helps?

lol GD...its not like I wore lizard earrings to the prom! lol...Just a way to show my little boy buddies that I was braver...lol

You're right...I can see that greenish/reddish tint...which, quite honestly is confusing me. It really does look like an agama....but I don't see how it could. Take a look at the thumbnail and tell me what ya think. I had one when I was about 15. It decided to take a leave of absence in our backyard...and I cried for 3 days...lol

lolol..well thats just terrible..! Ok..let me find another photo...lol

Well shoot....Every photo that I find...is a thumbnail...and the words sort of obliterate the photo. Try to "google" red headed agama...and THEN let me what you think...lol

hmmmmmmmm TxT, the red headed agamas I'm seeing in the searches show more of a blue than greenish tones . . . but they look pretty similar. Except the one I saw out here don't have the bands around his tail, so who knows? Maybe yours did the 'Lizard Limbo' with a cute little Anole (aka TxT-EarRing Lizard) and they started their own species? lol

lol...I'm going to have to rustle up my old lizard book somewhere and find out what the heck it is. Keep an eye out for the little guy...and try to take a few more photos if you can. No way that it could be an agama...but the overall appearance is sort of similar. I wish we had alot more lizards then what we do. I guess that since this is a new subdivision...they'll start comin' around alot more often if I make the yard a lot more lizard friendly.. I was ecstatic to see a gecko on my garage door the other night...lol.

lol @ ecstatic to see a gecko . . . I've got tons of those out here too . . . maybe ya'll can come out sometime and take home a goodie bag or two - full of lizards, ants and water scorpions lol :D

Meanwhile, I'll keep the camera handy and see if I can get some more pics of this guy.

lolol GD,
I've already threatened to take my parent's lizards away from them... Just a big ole male and a harem of about 8 females will do...lol :D

Yeah, that might work...save up a "care pkg" for me containing the following: 9 anoles
a red ant mound (all included, thank you very much)
one dogo pup :D
3 giant live oaks
1000 gallons of rain water
2 red tail hawks
that weird lizard
And anything else you can think...lol That should do just fine.. :D
Oh, and a horned toad pair if you can find 'em... :)