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 :)

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

I love the wee things to bits!! I really wish they'd thrive round our neck of the woods - they'd be just the thing to keep down the slugs.

[bellakara.livejournal.com]

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

[gipsy-dreamer.livejournal.com]

Dom has found Hedgehog poo in our garden quite regularly recently and we're chuffed to buttons - we thought we had fewer slugs than normal! I'd buy Hedgehog food to engourage it, but that would only get nommed by the cat next door :(

However, a lizard or two would be just as wonderful; what a shame they're so uncommon in the British climate!

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

Our blackbirds go for the magpies, which is pretty brave. But I just can't imagine them going for a frog, which is the closest thing we have to lizards in terms of size. But they don't need to, I suppose. They have worms and slugs and caterpillars by the beakful.

I've never seen a blackbird attacking a cat. But then, ring ousels attack people near their nest sites - and they're relatives of blackbirds, so there you go. The meek, mild blackbird manner is probably just a front.

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

That's because I didn't take them! J's hand is much steadier than mine... I get excited and the photo gets blurred...

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

We've had hedgehogs around, but I'm reluctant to encourage them as we're right next to some busy roads and they're likely to get squished!

I love hedgehogs to bits, too! We had one on the patio a few years back which was having a lovely time tackling a piece of marinated tofu kebab which had got lost during a family barbecue. It wasn't sure what to make of the marinade, and was doing that self-anointing business where it throws spittle over its spines. Strange little animals - every garden should have one, except if you live in the Outer Hebrides...

[gipsy-dreamer.livejournal.com]

Have you ever had a Hedgie allow you to stroke it? I'm sure you know as well as I do that they let their spines lie flat across their back when they don't feel threatened.

A couple of years ago I happened to notice a Hedgie out underneath our bird table. We know what NOT to feed them and so we threw a few scraps together and I went out and put the bowl in front of it (Dom had to shine a small torch so I could see. He started to nom and let me touch him, and he was SO SOFT!!! A lovely experience :)

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

My only close encounter was with an unfortunate mother hedgehog who managed to get herself stuck between the house wall and the garden wall while trying to help some silly babies who'd got trapped there. I was a small child at the time: my dad spent ages trying to lever the poor girl out (her spines had wedged her very tightly into place) while the babies were running around everywhere. It was a bit traumatic for all concerned (mother hedgehog especially), as we were leaving for our summer hols the following day.

When we returned a couple of weeks, Dad dug up the nest to make sure she hadn't died from internal injuries in our absence. Thankfully, there were no hedgehog corpses to be found, so mother and babies must have moved on.

[gipsy-dreamer.livejournal.com]

OMG, the poor thing! I couldn't possibly have enjoyed my holiday after seeing something like that :(

Do you remember the young Collared Dove that Dom rescued from next door's cat last spring who died on us three days later? I'm happy to report that this year we have four young ones and all are perfectly well :)

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, I remember! I'm pleased to hear the good news!

And I'm so relieved that these days we have a wildlife hospital nearby which can help us out with all such emergencies. We could have scooped up mother and babies and whisked them off to Hessilhead before you could say 'Mrs Tiggywinkle.'

[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...)

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

With the added bonus of a Roman pottery sherd! What more can one ask for?

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

My cats would have loved the extra excitement bestowed on the chase by having the blackbirds fight back. They were all homicidal maniacs. Except for Polly, who was a lazy wanna-be homicidal maniac. She'd wait for another cat to bestow the coup de grace, then waltz in and steal the corpse and pretend it was all her idea in the first place.

[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...

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

Glad my field book isn't talking cobblers!