Natural History Interlude

[endlessrarities]

I was so inspired by puddleshark 's recent lizard photograph that I thought I'd interrupt my Pompeii sequence with a quick post on Italian lizards. 

Last time we visited Italy, I noticed that the lizards had very natty bright green jackets on.  I was eager to get a photograph, but my attempts to get a decent shot were largely thwarted.

Here, in a perfect example of 'Don't Give Up Your Day Job', is my attempt at capturing this lizard for posterity:-

 

Eagle-eyed blog-followers will spot the tail at the top of the photograph.  Eagle-eyed blog-followers of an antiquarian persuasion will also note that while I failed to 'catch' the lizard, I actually managed to succeed in taking a very nice picture of a sherd of Roman coarseware which dominates the image...

J did a much better job at photographing lizards in general.  And on my return home, I was able to consult my helpful field guide to European wildlife, and confirm that they are in fact specimens of the Italian Wall Lizard:-
 

 

And as a tragic afternote...  On our return to the hotel several days after the disembodied tail was captured on candid camera, we found two blackbirds fighting over a worm in a Sorrento garden.  Turns out it wasn't a worm, but the still-twitching tail of a lizard which had shed its tail in an effort to avoid being predated.  The lizard in question was standing traumatised at the roadside, tail-less, but very much alive. 

I was all for rescuing the thing and escorting it back to the shrubbery from whence it came. J was dead against it in case it turned round and bit me (I think he thought it was a komodo dragon or a gila monster!) but in the end I left it alone in case it took fright and ran out into the traffic,  

Did it survive the experience?  I don't know.  Perhaps the tail was quite enough to satisfy the hungry blackbirds.  Perhaps they returned to finish the poor little fellow off.  And what amazed me was the fact that blackbirds were sufficiently carnivorous to launch such an attack in the first place.  Perhaps, when they're raising chicks in the dry Sorrento spring, it's enough to make them go for larger prey than we'd usually expect.  And perhaps they'd learned that the tail was an easy option.

Though I wouldn't have thought they'd find much meat on it...

Sorry there haven't been any garden posts this weekend.  I've been very busy, but the weather's awful and it's impossible to get decent photos.  Which is a shame, because the acid limoncello yellow tree paeony is out in bloom now.

Ancient Minoan Santorini: The Movie is being shown on BBC1.  It'll probably be stupid, but I'm kind of hoping that it isn't.  It's after my bedtime, so I'll set the DVD and hope for the best.

 

Comments

[aulus-poliutos.livejournal.com]

Heh, I got some pics like that first, too, when photographing sea eagles. Lots of pretty clouds. :)

Lizards usually survive such an attack. I hope it was sensible enough to hide in the bushes.

Blackbirds are fierce little things. They even attack cats - not to eat them, of course, but to protect their young. Neighbour's cat went for a run after two black fighter jets kept diving at it.

[gipsy-dreamer.livejournal.com]

You have no idea how happy the cuteness that is lizards has made me :)

[bellakara.livejournal.com]

Well, you did alright on the second and third photos!

[readthisandweep.livejournal.com]

Now, you tell me, where else but on LJ you would come across a sentence as fabulous as:
I was so inspired by puddleshark's recent lizard photograph that I thought I'd interrupt my Pompeii sequence with a quick post on Italian lizards.

It is highly unlikely that my blackbirds would need to attack my cat. Misty has been out on the balcony for a total of three minutes (twice.) It's only taken five months...

[puddleshark.livejournal.com]

I think if we fit the top bit of your first lizard photo to the bottom bit of my second lizard photo, we get a complete lizard, (although techincally a chimera of two species...)

[gghost.livejournal.com]

Such a beautiful little creature.

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

I've never had much luck in capturing Italian lizards and geckoes on camera. They're just so quick!

I really must upgrade my camera!

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

I took a few photos of those as well. I was quite annoyed because my camera battery ran flat in Herculaneum and (apart from not bringing along my spare) I did regret some of the lizard shots earlier.

they are in fact specimens of the Italian Wall Lizard
Yep, that's what I would have called them...