01/22/26

 I always look for these guys when I bike ride in their area.  There are a couple of very large limestone rocks at the end of a driveway and in the summer, I can usually find at least one of them sunning on it.  I got really lucky this past year and was able to capture both the male and female Collared Lizard.  The a bit brighter green male is on the right.  I look forward to seeing them this year.

09/04/25

 While out on a bike ride recently I was able to see and capture this Painted Turtle.  It was sitting off on the edge of the road and seemed out of harms way so I just photographed it and left it where it was to continue on it's way.  I always wonder where they think they are going.  😄

06/19/25

 While bike riding recently, I looked in the usual spot for the Collard Lizard that I usually see and was treated to 2 of them sunning themselves.  I believe it is the male and female and they cooperated for several photos of which this is one.  I believe the male is the brighter green on the right.

02/27/25

 Today's image is one that I was able to capture of a Collared Lizard where I know a spot that I can regularly see it and keep an eye out for it.  It's on a route I take for bike rides somewhat regularly.  This is most likely a male due to the green color, females are more muted in color.  They are named for the black band that is seen around their neck.  They like rocky areas where they can sun themselves.

11/30/23

 It's the last day of November, only 25 days until Christmas!  For today's picture, I saw this guy about two and a half weeks ago on a bike ride.  It was sitting across the road from a fairly large pond.  It may have been coming from a pond a little way behind it.  It was nice and bright and fairly large and kind of surprising to see at this time of year.  It's a Painted Turtle.

11/16/23

 This is an image of a male Collared Lizard I would see while riding my bike on this one road.  I have seen and shared a female from this same spot as well.  The male is more green looking than the female, whose upper body was a lot more tan.

8/10/23

 In my area of Kansas there are only a couple of venomous snakes that people need to watch out for, and this is one of them, an Eastern Copperhead.  I was very surprised to see this one as in summer they are mostly nocturnal and it was quite a hot day.  That's probably why I saw it in a stream.  They primarily eat small rodents, frogs, birds and large insects like Cicadas.  Their bite is rarely fatal and will often dry bite first, meaning they will not release venom.  A bite can make you feel fairly ill though.  When threatened, they will usually just freeze first as their coloration allows them to blend in well.  Just FYI, the other venomous snake in my area is the Timber Rattlesnake.  I have never seen one of these though.

9/1/22

 Happy September, the year is moving along so quickly!  I was redoing the rocks on my waterfall in my backyard pond this past weekend and had this little guy visit.  This is a Great Plains Skink or Blue Tailed Skink, I believe.  He was very cooperative and I was able to get this shot with my phone which is all I had near me at the time.

12 /9/19

This is another Collared Lizard that I saw out on Konza Prairie in early October.  All the ones I saw seemed rather small so must have been this years brood.  This one posed on a large limestone rock for me as well.

10/8/19

I was out walking at Konza Praitie on the Nature Trial this past weekend and there was quite a bit of nature to be seen that day.  I saw a couple of these guys, young, small Collared Lizards.  This one posed quite nicely for me on a limestone rock.

9/16/19

Yet another in the Palindrome Days.  I captured this image in June at Rollag Minnesota.  Kind of forgot about it.  Usually these guys are sitting on the logs in the pond but they seemed to think I was too close so jumped off into the water which I liked for a photo op better anyway.  😀

7/28/18

This is a close up image I was able to get of the Snapping Turtle I saw up at Tamarac Wildlife Refuge in Minnesota this past June.  They have quite the different textures on them and are even more ferocious looking up close.  😊

6/23/18

I captured this fierce looking guy alongside the road in Tamarac Wildelife Refuge.  I am pretty sure it's a Snapping Turtle and I did not want to get too close to it so I shot it with a zoom lens.  😁

10/16/17

I had shared this guy up close a little while ago.  This image shows it with it's long tail.  Some lizards will shed their tails easily to escape from prey but this one only does it if absolutely necessary as it uses it for balance.  This is a pretty common lizard in Kansas, and called a Collared Lizard due to the black band around it's neck.  I am pretty sure this is a male because the females are not so green.

10/4/17

I captured this image in my neighbor's yard this summer while watering her plants.  This is a Collared Lizard that I saw several times and was pretty shy but this day I was able to get an image.  This type of lizard is fairly common in my area but I don't see them often.

7/26/17

It's Animal week as well this week so my shots are either moths or animals if you were noticing.  😉  This is another of Arizona's lizards that I captured during the walk on my last day at the Grand Canyon.  I spotted this one around some trees I was photographing.  This is a Desert Spiny Lizard and must be one of the more common types seen because it's picture and ID was up in some of the buses showing things you could see in the park.  It also was not fond of having it's photo taken but paused long enough for a couple shots as it made it's way towards some rocks.

7/22/17

So hopefully our last boiling hot day for a bit.  I captured this image of this Lizard out at the Grand Canyon on one of my hikes there.  I believe this is a female Plateau Fence Lizard.  She was not too fond of having a photo taken but I got lucky when she posed a couple of times long enough to get a few shots off.  

3/1/17

Happy March!  A bit colder but actual Spring seems more in sight now.  I was looking through photos and found this guy and decided to share it.  A frog that visited my pond this past summer that was kind enough to pose for me.

2/22/17

When I was going through older photos I found this one of a cute little guy I had photographed on Konza Prairie.  This is a Collared Lizard which is one of the main types of reptiles we have in this area.  They are called "Collared" because they have a distinct set of black bands that go around their neck and shoulders that looks like a collar.