Man, I am getting backlogged with photos now, since my time to write things up keeps disappearing. Well, not true – I just keep using it for other things. I know, I know, after all that my readers have done for me…
Anyway, a few pics of a recent find at Walkabout Estates:
This is another Carolina anole (Anolis carolinensis,) this time on the small Japanese maple in the front garden we call The Jungle. I’m confident that this is an entirely new one because it’s in an entirely different locale from the ones featured here previously, and because it’s even smaller. I have yet to see one hatch, or even the unhatched eggs, so I can never be sure how long after hatching I’ve been seeing them. But at least I can give a scale comparison for this one.
You can understand why I have the best luck seeing these guys at night when they’re sleeping on leaves, and not during the day when they’re foraging in the foliage. I can occasionally spot them peripherally when there’s a tiny movement where there shouldn’t be, generally the small flip of a leaf as they leap across to another, but if they stick to just slinking around in a typical lizard manner, they’re incredibly easy to miss.
How about a close-up of our new arrival here?
Very often at night, they’ll awaken as the headlamp looms close, yet do nothing more than open their eyes for a bit before closing them again and going back to sleep. This one, however, was starting to contemplate going to a safer location, especially given that I was pretty close with the reversed 28-105 lens, so I let it be following a few frames.
A few nights later, after a day of heavy rains, I wasn’t really expecting to find it back out in the open on its favorite tree, but it presented quite a sight when rediscovered.
I don’t think that’s rain, since even just passing the mister over the adult anoles sends them scampering for cover – they don’t seem to like the rain. I think this is just the residual humidity gathering on its skin as its body temperature dropped overnight. But I was glad to get a catchlight in there, despite the fact that the flash was coming from the other side.
As of last night, this one was still using the Japanese maple as its sleeping spot, though I expect that to change soon. We’ll see. Meanwhile, other pics will be coming along shortly.