Lizards in sunshine

A couple of weeks ago, we saw the first lizards in the garden for this year. It was great to see them again. Last year, we had at least 6 lizards in my wildlife patch at one time, plus some others elsewhere in the garden. Well, this year, I have seen 3 together at any one time, and they were certainly enjoying some afternoon sun. The weather has actually been pretty poor here over the last week or so, but the lizards in the photos in this post were seen a couple of weeks ago.

The Common Lizards which we see in our garden tend to sit in the sun near some sort of cover. In the case of these lizards, they like to keep to the little open areas of soil or wall which are surrounded by tall grasses in my patch. The first photo below shows a lizard which I was able to get quite close to. I was able to use the macro mode on my camera here.

The photo below was taken a bit further away from the lizard but seems to capture the light better.

Sometimes, when it clouded over (as in the photo below) the lizard still sat there as if it were waiting for the sun to come out again.

Two smaller lizards (probably young ones) were sat quite deep in the long grass and didn't appear to be getting much sunlight because they were shaded so much. I find it amazing how they are able to keep so still for so long. When these creatures do move, however, they really do move fast. There could well have been more lurking around in the grass, but they would have been very hard to see with the constantly growing plants covering then up.

Its always great to see lizards about the garden and it reminds me of summer. Hopefully I will be able to see 6 of them again this year. The lizards in our garden are attracted by areas that are left scruffy. So just think, you could be helping to provide a habitat for lizards by not weeding an area of your garden. Its a no-brainer really!

Messy for us, but not for wildlife

In our garden, I like to keep a little part untidy for wildlife. We have a compost heap, and a patch of overgrown weeds. Earlier on, I went outside to photograph this area to give you an idea of how messy it actually looks. At any one time, we have seen 6 Common Lizards, mostly seen on a little opening on the right of the patch. At the moment, the patch is mostly made up of various grasses (which we didn't plant). This attracts all sorts of wildlife, and is a great haven. It is in full sunlight and is completely open to the elements, so it is not only good for the overgrowth, but its also good for basking lizards. We occaisionally see frogs there too, despite there not being much moisture. Various insects and slowworms quite frequently seen too. Thank you to Shirl for the montage instructions, which I have used for the montage below.


On BBC Springwatch, they are always advising you to leave some space in the garden to go wild. I completely agree, and in a way, it makes the garden look more interesting. However, I do intend to make this area a little bit neater, as you will understand as you see the photos above. Next year I am hoping to be able to put a small pond in this small space, along with some wild flowers and possibly a fruit bush. I am hoping I can do this without disturbing any of the existing wildlife. The plan is to do it bit by bit, so that I cause minimal damage to the willdife. I think I will try to improve the basking area for the lizards too. I have to say that it is a complete contrast to the neat vegetable patch with runner beans on the left.

Hmm... I don't really want to leave it too long before I do a bit of maintenance to the patch, because it will become an impossible task to weed it! Actually, looking after some weeds, and a few bits of rotting wood and rocks is far easier to manage than I thought, and I really do reccommend that you try it!

Birds and animals update

This morning, I went outside to take some pictures and videos of our garden birds and animals to show you. Firstly I would like to mention the strange absence of starlings recently, who used to feed on the fat feeder in large numbers. However, these starlings have been replaced by the slightly more dull and cheeky magpies. The magpies eat the fat balls as much as they can, before flying off with the rest of it in its beak. I took a picture of a magpie yesterday (probably a juvenile) because of its short tail. I am a bit confused though, because whenever I see this scrawny looking bird, the tail hasn't grown an inch since last time. I took pictures of blue tits, house sparrows, robins, wood pigeons and magpies. I also, as promised, got a good shot of 2 lizards basking in the sun. I have seen plenty of lizards lately, and they seem to like overgrown areas, with small open areas too bask in. The seed mix I am using at the moment is much more popular with the smaller birds, such as blue tits and great tits. I also spotted some long-tailed tits in our front garden yesterday. Please click on the images to enlarge them: