© irene waters 2016
© irene waters 2016
The Australian Blue Tongue lizard gets its common name from the blue tongue that the lizard uses to frighten its attackers. Sadly it often doesn’t frighten them and the blue tongue suffers at the paws of cats and dogs and the blades of motor mowers as they hide in the grass rather than run from a threat. There are six varieties of this Blue tongued skink in Australia meaning that most Australian back yards have at least one living in it. I know I have at least two in my garden. Normally they eat snails and beetles, sun in the day and move very slowly. If they are cornered they will bite but are not venomous. The bite will be strong enough though to break the skin and cause a bruise. A housewives tale says that the bite will never properly heal and break open every so often. I have never been bitten so I don’t know the truth of this but I think it more likely to be an urban myth.
I was invited by Judy Dykstra-Brown to take up the gauntlet and participate in a 7 day nature posting challenge. As part of the challenge I am to nominate a person on each of the seven days I post a photograph. They are under no obligation to join in but wonderful if they do.
Today I invite Mark Lambert from Mark Lambert’s photography to join the nature photo challenge if he would like to.
Reflections and Nightmares- Irene A Waters (writer and memoirist) 
Lizards that eat pests are welcome in my garden as it used to be overridden with snails that destroyed the plants. We still enjoy seeing our lizards but they are much smaller than your skinks – and ours have no blue tongues to amuse us. This one must have been pleased to have his picture taken as he didn’t stick out his tongue at you – I had to go on line to see the blue tongue. Did you name your two, Irene?
LikeLiked by 2 people
I can’t say I have named them but they probably both think they are called “Muffin/Bundy come here”. Glad you saw the tongue on line. It is quite a sight but mine are too busy scurrying back to safety (I have two intelligent ones) that I don’t get to see the tongues that often.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Muffin/Bundy come here – I’m laughing so hard, I’m falling off the chair.
LikeLiked by 1 person
How big are these lizards, Irene? We have lots of skinks here – brilliant colors. For some reason, Elijah Moon and Angel are not at all interested.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Maybe a foot or more long. Medium size. You are lucky – dogs and cats seem to be attracted to ours. I thought perhaps they had a smell as they always know when they are about.
LikeLike
We have plenty of lizards here in Florida, but none that are very large except for the iguanas that people release into the wild because they get too large as pets. Iguanas aren’t native to Florida so when the temperature drops in the winter, they become stunned and fall from trees to the ground below. They’re fairly large so this can be disconcerting. Those that aren’t killed by the fall wake up when it warms up and resume their business.
LikeLiked by 2 people
You’d get a bit of a shock if you were standing underneath when one fell. We get monitor lizzards here which are called goannas and are very similar to iguanas. Huge lizzards but harmless.
LikeLiked by 1 person