kaBOOM.

Gray trees dead leaves gray trees dead leaves gray trees dead leaves a little bit warmer dead leaves gray trees torrential rain and BOOM...spring is here again. Our neighbor's houses are disappearing behind emerging foliage and suddenly it's not as easy to see far into the woods anymore.

Spring also brings back our lizard friends who sun themselves in and around the front courtyard and generally skitter away when you come too close. However, today we saw one of the bigger fence lizards we've come across, just hanging out on the brown cedar siding, enjoying a little solar therapy. When we have time, we practice catch and release observation of these guys, and using a butterfly net, we got an opportunity for an up-close look.
The Eastern Fence Lizard (Sceloporus undulatus) generally grows to be between 4" and 7" long, and this particular guy was pushing the 7" end of the spectrum. I learned later that the blue markings just under his neck indicate the male of the species. They mate in spring and will help produce between 3 and 16 fertilized eggs. This particular one seemed fairly easy-going, and I'm told they can make good pets if properly cared for (diet consists of spiders and insects, which we seem to have in abundance). Some more photos of our briefly captive visitor:

Using the highly accurate measurement method with a standard US nickel, we estimated his length as around 9.5 nickels long, or 20 cm, which is just under 8" (for the metric impaired).

We had our 5 minutes of fun observation and then opened the lid to let him scamper away. Surprisingly, once the lid was removed he stayed in place for at least 5 more minutes, wondering what kind of strange aliens captured him, probed him and then set him free. It allowed us one more shot, capturing the quizzical look on his face. I'm sure we'll see him again real soon.