Something different.

15Jan
by patmcf

Well you may wonder what’s going on out here on the country patch!!  Well not long ago, our mate Stephen (Maenoferren) mentioned that his son was interested in  lizards, and as we have three in residence I said I would try and get some photos for him, as its summer here in Australia they are out and about. Our residents are the common blue tongued lizard which are harmless and can become friendly if treated well.  They are also clear up snails and bugs from the garden so they are good to have in the garden.

These small reptiles are solitary and keep to their own areas as a rule.  Our longest dweller (13” long), I feel is a female and lives in a long drain pipe open at both ends, one end in the shade and the other out in the sun… just what a posh lizard needs! The smaller guy featured in these photos is around 10” long and lives in a fenced off vegetable garden a good 30 yards away at the other side of the house.  I mention this as he was caught visiting the other one’s home yesterday and I was able to get some bad shots (photos!) in the garden nearby returning to his own area – not sure what he’d been up to though …!   I found him back outside the house I built for him last summer on his porch. Unfortunately the sun made it difficult to get any good photos and as I didn’t want to pick him up or disturb him until he really gets used to us.  These will have to suffice for now.

Cheers Pat.

25 thoughts on “Something different.”

  4. Kuribo's avatar

    Kuribo

    I can’t top TIM’s comment so all I can say is that the lizards are suitably impressive and just about what I’d expect from Oz. We have no lizards in Chicago or Illinois for that matter to my knowledge though down south and in the southwest of the US, there are plenty to go around!

    Liked by 2 people

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      1. Kuribo's avatar

        Kuribo

        You got it, Pat. They stick to the warmer and sunnier places. The Southern states in the US probably match up climate-wise pretty well with Australia. Florida even has a lot of dangerous wildlife not native to the US thanks to people dumping their exotic pets so I figure that would make an Australian feel at home 😀

        Liked by 1 person

      2. patmcf's avatar

        patmcf

        Yep mate warm and sunny, your Florida is like our Queens land , hot wet and steamy with some very nasty critters lurking about . I have heard you have a nasty snake in those swamps , I think it’s a cotton mouth 🤔, but like you said we to have pests that come from OS and really take to the climate and bread like wildfire 😳, I guess all countries have there fill of dumb folk.

        Liked by 1 person

      3. Kuribo's avatar

        Kuribo

        That sounds like a good comparison to me! There are definitely cottonmouths. There are also snakes like Burmese Pythons that are killing the native wildlife and obviously don’t belong there too. They have started having hunts each year to try and get their numbers down as a result of the actions of a few dumb people, unfortunately.

        Liked by 1 person

    1. patmcf's avatar

      patmcf

      After Steve’s boy’s interest in lizards was drawn to me I jerked me into my senses, I to love to see animals and totally different geographical forms so why not keep it up as Australia has s lot of weird and interesting creatures . I was always fascinated by snapping turtles after I heard a Chuck Berry song about the a squillion years ago 😅😅👍🏻

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      2. patmcf's avatar

        patmcf

        Wow 😲 just checked out a video on the common and the Alligator snapping turtles , You wouldn’t catch me swimming across that creek with a Chuck for any money😳. Your so right about them looking like Dinosaurs 🦖👍🏻.

        Liked by 1 person

      3. Mark A. Morin's avatar

        Mark A. Morin

        The Alligator snappers are down south and would never survive a winter up here. The common ones here are, well, common, but hibernate all winter and reemerge in the spring. They are the ones that decide your lawn looks good enough to lay their eggs in – especially as we have a pond nearby. We have a few other species of turtle here, but the snapping turtle is the one that draws attention. It’s neck is so long it cannot retract into it’s shell – and will extend it’s neck out nearly a foot and a half to self right – or to take off a poorly decided close finger!

        Liked by 1 person

      4. patmcf's avatar

        patmcf

        😅😅😅I bet they could , snap there goes another finger 😲. We don’t have any that even come near to what they look like just your ordinary run of the mill type,as a kid we used to get Terrapin turtles out of river we lived by, they were only tiny, about two inches in diameter, made fun pets though 😃.

        Liked by 1 person

  8. rantingsfromunder's avatar

    rantingsfromunder

    Cute little chaps aren’t they, funnily enough my wife showed me a story on the BBC this morning about an inch long gecko found in a punnet of strawberries bought from a supermarket over here that had come from Egypt!

    Cheers Roger.

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    1. patmcf's avatar

      patmcf

      I bet there are a lot of illegals coming in with food stuffs as long one doesn’t consume them😅😅. We imported a toad to east insects back in the thirties now the insects have long gone but the roads are a mega problem in the North of Auss , some time they will hitch a ride south under vehicles 😳, I’m not sure they would survive down in the cold though as they originally came from Central America.

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