Wapsi Square Forum

I saw this fellow a couple years back while waiting outside the Immediate Care clinic to pick up some family member or other. (I thought i had some pics of a blue-tailed skink, too, but apparently not.)

This boyo is an anole. (Sometimes mistakenly called a chameleon - they can change colour to a limited extent.)





For some sense of scale, that's a FedEx box to the right, and the "®" is the one at the end of the logo.



This shot isn't mine, but it's so pretty:

So cute. I've only ever seen the pale ones while visiting friends.

It's very rare to see any lizards around here. Snakes and turtles are plentiful, however. I met this guy a little while ago (WARNING: MAY CAUSE PANIC ATTACKS IN THOSE NOT FOND OF OUR LEGLESS FRIENDS).

Catawampus wrote:It's very rare to see any lizards around here. Snakes and turtles are plentiful, however. I met this guy a little while ago (WARNING: MAY CAUSE PANIC ATTACKS IN THOSE NOT FOND OF OUR LEGLESS FRIENDS).

What a cutie! *love*

Not sure what he is, but he's not venomous...

AnotherFairportfan wrote:

Bad boys rape our young girls, but Violet gives willingly.

AmriloJim wrote:

AnotherFairportfan wrote:

Bad boys rape our young girls, but Violet gives willingly.

snake snake snake------BOOM BOOM BOOM---good snake

AnotherFairportfan wrote:Not sure what he is, but he's not venomous...

Can't tell for sure but looks a lot like a common garter snake (Thamnophis sirtalis). They're pretty mellow. Garters have apparently been recently discovered to have a mild neurotoxic venom (says Wiki) but they aren't dangerous to humans.

Decades ago, when working as a computer operator in college, I started a long-running job and then stepped outside for some fresh air. At the edge of the lawn, by the unmown field, was an old rusty piece of scrap metal... part of an old car door, perhaps. Sunning itself on the top was a small garter snake. I sat down a few feet away, we looked at each other, and just spent the next little while soaking up the spring sunshine.

After ten or fifteen minutes he (or she) turned and slithered away into the field, and I went back indoors and loaded the next couple of reels of tape on the drives for the big sort/merge/report job.

See, it's quiet moments with nature that so many people miss out on, and that I find so awesome. I feel the world would be a lot better if everyone took a few minutes and just... Chilled out with nature.

Kinda like how some of my redneck friends are convinced a fishing trip could end a war if someone actually bothered to set it up.

The last time I had an experience like that, I was sitting on my mom's deck after doing some yard work for her, and a hummingbird landed on the little feeder she keeps for them.
Not hovered for a while.
It actually landed.
In my experience, they never seemed to do that when humans were watching... But this one did. We chilled for a few minutes before he went back to work doing hummingbird business and whatnot.

AnotherFairportfan wrote:Not sure what he is, but he's not venomous...

Looking at the stripes on his/her back, it looks like a garter snake...

AnotherFairportfan wrote:

GlytchMeister wrote:See, it's quiet moments with nature that so many people miss out on, and that I find so awesome. I feel the world would be a lot better if everyone took a few minutes and just... Chilled out with nature.

Kinda like how some of my redneck friends are convinced a fishing trip could end a war if someone actually bothered to set it up.

The last time I had an experience like that, I was sitting on my mom's deck after doing some yard work for her, and a hummingbird landed on the little feeder she keeps for them.
Not hovered for a while.
It actually landed.
In my experience, they never seemed to do that when humans were watching... But this one did. We chilled for a few minutes before he went back to work doing hummingbird business and whatnot.

This. Whenever my son and I get overloaded on life, we pack a waterbottle(I take keys and phone), and we wander out to get lost, just observing nature.
If it's not too cold and just after raining, we go puddle jumping in flip flops(towels inside right by the door).

Yesterday we had a long discussion on iron gall ink, after observing a wasp "sting" an oak tree.

La vita e bella, right?

DinkyInky wrote:

GlytchMeister wrote:See, it's quiet moments with nature that so many people miss out on, and that I find so awesome. I feel the world would be a lot better if everyone took a few minutes and just... Chilled out with nature.

Kinda like how some of my redneck friends are convinced a fishing trip could end a war if someone actually bothered to set it up.

The last time I had an experience like that, I was sitting on my mom's deck after doing some yard work for her, and a hummingbird landed on the little feeder she keeps for them.
Not hovered for a while.
It actually landed.
In my experience, they never seemed to do that when humans were watching... But this one did. We chilled for a few minutes before he went back to work doing hummingbird business and whatnot.

This. Whenever my son and I get overloaded on life, we pack a waterbottle(I take keys and phone), and we wander out to get lost, just observing nature.
If it's not too cold and just after raining, we go puddle jumping in flip flops(towels inside right by the door).

Yesterday we had a long discussion on iron gall ink, after observing a wasp "sting" an oak tree.

La vita e bella, right?

...I need to go lean camping... Nothing like wandering out into the middle of some campground with a small pack of supplies and sleeping on a bed of boughs.

(Wilderness Survival was my favorite campout... I got to make a shelter the way Les Stroud does, didn't have all kinds of camping gadgets and doodads... Just a well-packed coffee pot of food and tools.)

Dave wrote:Decades ago, when working as a computer operator in college, I started a long-running job and then stepped outside for some fresh air. At the edge of the lawn, by the unmown field, was an old rusty piece of scrap metal... part of an old car door, perhaps. Sunning itself on the top was a small garter snake. I sat down a few feet away, we looked at each other, and just spent the next little while soaking up the spring sunshine.

After ten or fifteen minutes he (or she) turned and slithered away into the field, and I went back indoors and loaded the next couple of reels of tape on the drives for the big sort/merge/report job.

I spent two nights with a wild king cobra. We got along peaceably enough, but it's not really something that I'd recommend.

I tend to get along well with wild critters, and know how they're going to behave. It's come in useful quite a few times. Makes nature photography a bit easier, too, especially since I usually didn't have any zoom lens on my camera.

DinkyInky wrote:

GlytchMeister wrote:I'm... Respectful of snakes and spiders. I'll let them hang out with me if I am convinced they're cool, but if they aren't acclimated to humans, I stay away. Pet tarantulas are a lot less scary to me than a wild spider of unknown species in my place. Similarly, a will keep a respectful distance from any wild snake... But a calm, non-venomous pet snake or zoo snake? Sure, I can chill with one of those all day.

I'd have fun hanging out with you at Brookfield or Lincoln Park...though I'd step out to the side and beg to assist with milking times.

I remember going to the Dallas Zoo on holiday...stupid macho jerkfaces were pounding on the viper's display glass trying to get them riled up so the girls clinging to them could ooh and ahh at their macho bravado. My son commented on walking by, "Well, that's a Darwin waiting to happen..." He then told the nearest zookeeper who got security to threaten them.

I mean, these were not just plain Indiana cottonmouths(though they had those too) these were some of the most venomous snakes in Texas and a few from around the world. I was so proud of my nerdy son...

That story earned him a Julie hug. Such a cool kid!!

Julie wrote:

DinkyInky wrote:

GlytchMeister wrote:I'm... Respectful of snakes and spiders. I'll let them hang out with me if I am convinced they're cool, but if they aren't acclimated to humans, I stay away. Pet tarantulas are a lot less scary to me than a wild spider of unknown species in my place. Similarly, a will keep a respectful distance from any wild snake... But a calm, non-venomous pet snake or zoo snake? Sure, I can chill with one of those all day.

I'd have fun hanging out with you at Brookfield or Lincoln Park...though I'd step out to the side and beg to assist with milking times.

I remember going to the Dallas Zoo on holiday...stupid macho jerkfaces were pounding on the viper's display glass trying to get them riled up so the girls clinging to them could ooh and ahh at their macho bravado. My son commented on walking by, "Well, that's a Darwin waiting to happen..." He then told the nearest zookeeper who got security to threaten them.

I mean, these were not just plain Indiana cottonmouths(though they had those too) these were some of the most venomous snakes in Texas and a few from around the world. I was so proud of my nerdy son...

That story earned him a Julie hug. Such a cool kid!!

He just got up for school and said, "Thank you Miss Julie!"