Friday 20 August 2021

Lizards.


These little Wall Lizards are very much a part of our everyday lives. This particular one had been poking her head out from the fountain spout, but (of course) decided to move as soon as she saw my camera.

Lizards (from Latin Lăcerta) get everywhere. They live in the walls of the house, in watering cans, and I've even found them inside my drying swimming trunks. Nowhere is out of bounds for Lizards; they can be found anywhere at any time. I would estimate there being about 20 that live in the nooks and crannies of the front wall of the house, and countless others elsewhere. They scuttle about all the time when it's sunny.


We only have two varieties of Lizard; these common Wall Lizards, and the much bigger European Green Lizards. The Green ones are very shy, and much rarer. I occasionally see them sunbathing, but as soon as they see me; they're off. 

We do also have the rather unpleasant looking black and yellow Salamanders, but they rarely live close to humans, and only seem to come out into the open after rain.

Lady Magnon has a semi-tame Lizard that lives under the windowsill outside the bedroom. They spend ages just looking at each other. I think she named him Marmaduke, or maybe Gerald, or he could even be Boris.... Actually, I think he's called Norman, or maybe it's Harold.

 

22 comments:

  1. I live a few miles from chalk heathland
    Lizards used to be common place. Alas not now.

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    1. No shortage here. I love seeing them. It's a nice hot day today, so lots around.

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  2. We like the lizards here in Texas too, Cro. We see mostly the Green Anole, but there are others. When we first moved here, there was a huge Texas horned lizard in our backyard. My kids thought it was a dinosaur. Having lizards, toads, and box turtles around means our area is chemical free. I hate it when I see these big chemical trucks coming around to spray people's lawns.

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    1. That all sounds much more exotic than here; especially the Texas Horned Lizard. I'm not sure if I'd want anything too big wandering around!

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  3. Of course another lizard inhabits your property. He's a rather large, well-fed lounge lizard with a silver beard and a beret.

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    1. I think I may have seen him; a rather dashing character!

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  4. In the motherland the BLACK and YELLOW salamander is called Lurchi, a cartoon character of my childhood, advertising some company's shoes. Yes, Cro, really.

    Apart from Lurchi, I find lizards slightly unnerving. First they sit still (sunbathe) for hours, usually on a white washed wall. Great. Meditative. Then, suddenly, they dart around at high speed. Not so great. Not that they fling themselves at you or bite.

    When I was little my mother told me to never touch a lizard's tail. It breaks off. No danger [to the lizard] there then.

    U

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    1. The only warning about Lizards here is not to let your Cat eat them; apparently it makes them go very thin (and possibly die).

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  5. My MiL (from the West Indies) pronounced the end of lizard as in 'hard'. Ever since then every lizard we've ever seen has been called Eddie Lizzard, after one of our favourite comedians.

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    1. Yes, liz-ud, or liz-ard is an interesting point of pronunciation. Eddie Liz-ud wouldn't sound half as good!

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  6. Lizard kissing a lion, how cute.

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  7. We have lizards inside and out. I love watching at night. They come out to catch moths. If it's quiet we can hear them making a click click sound. We have a couple who live high up in the beams of our bedroom too. Haven't got friendly enough yet to give them a name

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    1. Ours very rarely come indoors. I have had one of the big green ones indoors, but I think he just got lost.

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  8. I don't suppose he answers to his name anyway.

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    1. He doesn't bring back the balls she throws for him either.

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  9. In Massachusetts, US, we only have salamanders. They hide underneath rocks and are rarely seen. There are no friendly lizards here.

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    1. I don't like Salamanders, they give me the creeps.

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  10. I really like lizards and I love seeing geckos in hot and tropical countries on walls everywhere and making their clicking noises.

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  11. They used to amuse The Dog for hours waiting for a skuttle and a chase.

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  12. When I first moved to my current home I learned there were several colonies of blue-tongue lizards living in the drains and shrubberies. I was lucky enough to see a few while they were sunbaking, but they usually did that on the driveways and got themselves run over. People just didn't watch out for them in site of signage posted after the hibernation period. I have one living close to my front porch but only hear him rustling as he moves through the leaves, I haven't seen him. We have plenty of geckos here too, but not inside.

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