Two lizards and a pig in a morning

[Megan le Fey]

We went walking in the woods this morning with the dog.  It was really quite hot in the sun but in the woods it was lovely, dappled shade and with lots of flowers that we don't usually see in the fields.  We found this lizard and he was quite a ham posing nicely for the camera though keeping Utopie away was a bit of a problem. 

[IMG]http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h15/miggimeggi/IMGP0622.jpg[/IMG]

In the end we put her on the lead which was just as well as just a little while later a sanglier zoomed across our path and away and she wanted to be after it.  We have been here for a year and a half and although we know that there are lots here, this was the first one we have seen.

When we got home we found the next lizard on one of the trees outside our front door.  This one is an old friend who lives amongst the pots of kitchen herbs but he was much more camera shy than the first.

[IMG]http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h15/miggimeggi/IMGP0636.jpg[/IMG]

I had hoped that they were rare and exciting new species[:P] but when I looked on Chrispp's site I found that they are just quite common and  garden but I really enjoyed seeing them anyway.[:D]

[WJT]

Anne, lovely photos, I wish we had exotic green lizards like that here. I seem to remember you being located in the Dordogne so don't know why we don't have any in this part of the Dordogne. Ours are the ordinary small brownish ones.

When we first bought the house, I had a bit of a problem with them because there are so many, now I think they are very sweet. I have found  a few needing rescuing this week, one that somehow got in our exterior light (lantern) and couldn't get out, he was very lucky I spotted him, never look in that direction normally. [:)] And the other in a bucket and couldn't get out. So now feel quite protective of them.

[chris pp]

I think that what I have put on my site is slightly misleading, I'll change it a bit, Anne. What it should say is "that although widespread, populations are often localised".  In effect this can mean large distances where they will not be found, in areas with intensive cereal production they are usually either scarce or absent.

Chris