Blue and the Desert Spiny Bunch

Got some questions about ol' blue from the newsletter I sent yesterday. Here's some fun facts:

  • He's the patriarch of a large lizard dynasty living in our walled-in backyard.
  • He's a Desert Spiny Lizard (Sceloporus magister) native to the Sonoran and Chihuahua deserts.
  • Male desert spinys have blue markings that run under their body, hence "Blue"
  • Jamie names the lizards and actually calls this one 'Big Blue' or just 'Blue'. I sometimes use Ol' Blue because I just like it.
  • The other lizards in the family (as far as we can tell) are Harry (the first one that Jamie made friends with a few years back), Sandy and the new one 'Micro'.
  • Starting with Harry, these lizards have over the years learned that Jamie will feed them meal worms when they come out into the center of the yard. But sometimes they can't wait and can be found on the porch. In fact we have to be careful going out the back door because sometimes Harry will be waiting right outside.
  • Harry is actually a 'she'. But Jamie didn't realize that when he named her and the name has stuck.
  • Most of the lizards will now climb onto Jamie's leg when he kneels down to feed them. It's one of the coolest things I've ever seen.
  • Around November, they go into hibernation, so we haven't seen them for months!
  • But the mealworms in the canister in the refrigerator were still alive! Good to know when food shortages start driving us to eating insects (yummy AND long fridge life!)

And now some documentation of our fun lizard life (all photos by Jamie):

Micro waiting on the back door gate...

Harry (L) and Big Blue (R) (Can't see Harry? Good camouflage, huh?)

Harry sitting on her house.

Feed me!!! (introducing Sandy on the far left)

Big Blue jumping up on Jamie's knee for the first time! Dang, look at those claws!

 

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