Blog Header

Blog Header

Friday 11 April 2014

A few critters seen recently

My OH discovered this little lizard without a tail indoors because one of the cats had brought it in. I thought it had lost its tail in the process but looking at some images on the web it looks like this is a tail that is already regenerating. I'm glad to say it was saved and put back outside near the steps to the garage, where there are plenty of gaps between the rocks for it to hide inside. It could be a Common Lizard or a Common Wall Lizard, but I have never delved into the different species of European lizards before!

Little lizard with a regenerating tail on my OH's hand.

And a slightly closer up view.

I was removing some weedy old compost from the tops of the large pots that contain my Oleanders which live out all year, when I moved one slightly and wondered why it was wobbling. I tilted the pot and brushed out what I thought was a stone. Oops, no, it was a tiny toad! 

I worried sick I might have crushed it as it looked a bit flat but appeared uninjured. So I took it round to the back door and went to get my camera. I had hoped it was a Midwife Toad which are only this size when mature (about 1 1/4 inches/3cm) as I know that we have them here from the bleepy noise they make every evening from about April onwards. But after a bit of research it is none other than a young Common Toad, which take quite a few years to reach full size. The way to tell the difference is that Common Toads have horizontal slits in their eyes and the Midwife Toads have vertical ones. This one came to life after I took a couple of photos so I took it back to where I found it and put it under some plants growing out of the house wall.

Very small Common Toad (Bufo bufo). Isn't that a nice Latin name? :-)

Here it is coming to life after its wee shock, and the lovely surface here is my gardening glove!

I was happy to see a Great Spotted Woodpecker on the peanuts a few days ago as it's the first one I've seen this year. They are normally quite common visitors to the bird feeders. I took these photos out of a house window as if I'd gone outside it would have flown off.

Female Great Spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocopos major).

The following photo is a very zoomed in picture of the moorhens' nest, where I was pleased to see that Madame is now sitting on the nest! This is really early for them so hopefully there will be a number of little black pom-poms to watch around the lake soon. You can just see her right in the middle - a black head and the top of the red beak.

Madame Moorhen sitting in her nest.

Not quite wildlife but new life. There are often sheep in the paddock across the road but they do move around to other paddocks. So when they were moved back to this one recently there were already two lambs that were of a fair size, like the one below. But a couple of days ago I was over in our orchard checking out the blossom on the fruit trees when I discovered one of the ewes with twin new born lambs!

A not so new born lamb.

Here's a tatty old ewe with two tiny lambs.

I'm surprised she let me take photos as they usually move away when they have lambs with them.
The sheep here always look really tatty by this time of year!

26 comments:

  1. A lizard regenerating its tail, never heard of! So special, Mandy! And now I have read your future in the lines of your hand : looks bright, my friend!
    Very pleased to see you did not hurt Young Mister Toad, he's really reviving on the turquoise "soil"!
    And what a delight it will be to make aquaintance with Mrs. Moorhen little ones! (I spotted her easily!)
    I most certainly understand mother sheep and her lambs : I myself would even move closer if I saw you pointing your lens at me! Loved my little stay here again, dear Mandy!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They are lucky to be able to do that. Apparently they will let their tails break off on purpose if there is a predator and the tails carry on twitching to keep the predator interested while the lizard makes its escape. Saw loads of little lizards on Thursday on our birding day out at the coast (will make that the next blog post; loads of photos to sort through!).
      Yes toadie liked my glove for some reason! I get too lazy to try to stage photos with natural looking backgrounds, just want to snap and then get on with what I was doing, haha! :-)
      Thanks Jan, and I can't wait for baby moorhens and hope I get some better pictures than last year!

      Delete
  2. Looks like a Lacerta vivipara - Common Lizard Mandy. I typed that very confidently so you should believe it, honestly ;-) Don't get them here - too cold and wet I reckon.
    Like Bufo bufo. We normally have one or two lurking around the woodshed but haven't seen one for a couple of years now. They've also stopped spawning in the pond too :-(
    And I've never found a Moorhen nest - well spotted. The sheep are just tatty cos they haven't been sheared (I believe). The lambs are just arriving round here. Lots of them tottering round the fields.
    Nice set of piccies.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Nick. I couldn't really tell much difference between the two lizard species but I didn't have much time for more than a quick look. Never tried to ID them before. I've come across larger toads before - amazed I have never injured any as they do like to bury themselves in soil!! Not sure if we have ever had toadspawn here as even frogspawn is rare as the lake is rather large and nowadays I think the ducks eat any spawn. :-(
      It's not so hard to spot moorhen nests here. :-)
      And the sheep here are the most tatty of any I have ever seen! And ugly too.

      Delete
  3. Another fabulous set of pictures, Mandy :-)
    I love the wee smiling lamb!
    Did you knit a sweater directly from the ewe?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Marie-Helene! That would be the most minging sweater imagineable. I hope you know that word 'minging'! :-)))))

      Delete
    2. Actually, I didn't, but now I do, LOL :-)))

      Delete
    3. I knew you'd look it up if you didn't know it! It's actually quite a new word - I only heard it (from the TV) about 10 years ago. I am slow to learn new English words because I only get them from the TV or facebook! It's not the most polite of words so don't go saying it when you are talking to polite company. It's not rude, just a bit 'common'. IMO. :-)

      Delete
  4. You are so lucky. We hardly ever get toads or lizards here - though there are plenty of slow worms this year and from the look of things most are only a year old. I wonder how much warmer you are than us. Are you still getting the odd frost?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Sarah! You are lucky with the slow worms! We saw a few here years ago but don't have any photos of them. I don't see toads that often but sometimes discover them when weeding and find them buried in the soil or hiding under lettuce (a good place for them with all the slugs)!
      I think we are about 2-3 degrees C warmer than south west England but sometimes a bit cooler than London in summer! And yes there were a couple of very light frosts this last week.

      Delete
  5. Interesting that you have similar skink type lizards that drop their tails when attacked too. We have those all over the garden and, although we don't' have cats, they sometimes end up inside!
    We used to call them drop-tail lizards when we were young.
    As for the common toad; you can keep that! I like my Pobblebonks better. Not so warty and dare I say, ugly!
    Cute lambs but strange how the sheep are raggedy. Don't they shear them over there or is it too early?
    Great post as usual, Mandy! :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Kim and thank you! Well you live in the land of interesting lizards so I am not surprised. I'd like some geckos here!
      I don't see many frogs although I did hear some recently. I think my ducks eat the frogspawn and it's been a long time since I saw frogspawn and tadpoles, though I do see some tiny baby frogs very occasionally. Maybe they come from a ditch. Toads are ugly but this one was cute!
      Yes sheep are sheared but it will probably not be for a few weeks yet as it could still get pretty cold at night.

      Delete
  6. Hallo Mandy! Ich möchte mich wieder einmal bedanken für die wundervollen Bilder und Kommentare, die Sie immer ins Netz stellen. Vielen Dank!!!
    Detlef aus dem Erzgebirge in Sachsen im östlichen Deutschland

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you so much for your sweet comment, Detlef! I'm glad you like my blog! :-)

      Delete
  7. Well you have had a few great finds, I am on the look out for frogs and toads this year at the park I visit, I was hoping the boggy area would have some, no luck yet, have been getting down and dirty!! this week looking under rotting wood, trying to get better looking at creepy crawly things.. fell over backwards when a woodlouse moved....needs a bit of work!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. lol Amanda! Glad to hear you are bug hunting! I have yet to really do that this year (apart from spiders). When I've got my garden sorted and sown a few more seeds in the veg patch then I'll be on the hunt. Flowers are nice but bugs are more fun. :-)

      Delete
  8. Nice nature collection Mandy! We have those skink type lizards also and tons of anoles. Their tales easily break off when they are escaping from predators (like the cat!). I love that last photo - so sweet!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Miss LB! I just looked up Anoles and they are really cool - you are lucky! Thanks very much and that little lamb was going baaaaaa! They grow up so fast though. :-)

      Delete
  9. Just clicked onto your photos via Carl, as usual they are so interesting and beautiful to look at. Looking forward to the rest of the year. Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi June, I had to go and look at Carl's facebook page as I hadn't realised he had shared my post! Thanks very much for taking the time to leave a comment. I really appreciate it and I'm glad you enjoyed the pics. :-)

      Delete
  10. How cool is that - Chateau Moorhen has become a triage ward :) Loved seeing the detail in that little lizard and never knew of such a thing. We used to have a toad but it didn't stay too long at our pond as the edges are so steep and it was having difficulty getting out with my 'make shift' ramp. I'd love to be able to sit outside in the evening and hear toads :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Rosie - found another lizard yesterday and this one had a freshly lost tail - horrible cats! It seems like the only opportunity to see a lizard up close though! The Midwife Toads that we have here (and I've never seen) emit a bleepy noise which drove us nuts when we first moved here as it sounds like something electronic and I was looking round the house wondering what on earth it was! Now I know what they are, it is a nice sound and has stopped being irritating and I welcome it. Thanks for visiting. :-)

      Delete
  11. Really enjoyed a peek at your wild and not so wild - life! As you might imagine, we have lots of lizard species here in the desert. Th cats are supposed to follow a "catch and release" rule but occasionally, a lizard loses more than his tail :-(

    Spring is in full bloom here so there's no shortage of photography. Wish they lasted longer!

    Well...so much for me getting back to my blog and G+! Lazy in my old age, maybe? I like to think I just too much other irons in the fire, so to speak :-)

    Thanks, as always, for taking the time to share with us!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Marianne! Yesterday one of the cats brought in another lizard, a big green one which I've never seen before. This one had freshly lost its tail and I see in my photos it was injured with bite marks in its flesh. :-( We put it outside near the steps to the garage which are made from rocks and there are plenty of gaps and where we usually see little lizards. Hope it survives but it was also cool to see the critter and know that they are here.

      I know what you mean about G+ (and blogging). I can't keep up with all this social networking! I prefer to keep my blog up as it's my record of my garden and I can share more photos here. Posting every day on other sites is too time consuming and I'd rather be outside! I'll pop over to Instagram and check out what you have been up to. :-) Miss you though and thanks for taking the time to visit!

      Delete
    2. Poor Lizard! What can we do. Our cats are hunters and it brings them so much pleasure! I like to think another predator might have killed the lizard otherwise :-)

      I do miss G+ but have finally realized I just can't do it any more. I have clients who still check out my galleries, though, so I won't totally abandon it.

      I feel sure I'll get back to my blog. I have so many photos to share! We're heading to Utah for a camping adventure this week. I'm betting I'll be inspired to share photos via my blog when I get back :-)

      Delete
    3. Talking of cats, the lucky lizards have been forgotten for the moment as they switched to bringing in shrews now! Two were put back outside unharmed but two didn't survive. I like them, they are cute little things.

      That's OK about G+. I had a look at your Instagram pictures for the last month and you've had some great butterfly sightings and your cacti are producing some fantastic blooms! I guess you toe is better now.

      Have a great time off travelling and I look forward to seeing your pics (even if they are only on Instagram!). :-)

      Delete