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14 10 2007

Nature, red in tooth and claw…

Posted by: ryno in Toowoomba, diary, nature

Well, blue in tongue, anyway. I was quietly going about my business, when Constance J Woodle
Muahaha, my plan is coming to fruition…
gave her “Something Here, Please Look!” bark from a corner of the garden.

It was one of the pair of really big blue-tongued lizards who live in my yard but are seldom seen. There’s a smaller one, Roger The Saurus, who is seen more frequently and lives in my pepper patch, but these two are tremendous: thicker than my wrist, I’d say.

Bluetongue - hose is 20mm diameter for size scaling

It’s mating season, but this one seemed to be alone. (Who can tell - they usually stay hidden from their human, canine and feline co-tenants.) I noticed a reptile tick below his/her eye.
Tick visible below left eye (not transmissible to mammals)

Hmm. It’s possible this one’s a girly lizard: the marks on her head may be tooth-scrapes from mating.

Lizard still has the tick, because she left while I was inside getting Herself out for a look at this beautiful big beast. They’re lovely creatures! They keep the snail population down, and may explain why we’re not often bothered by snakes.

Here’s a few more shots for nature-loving Reader D. Clickable for larger, of course.

2007-10-14-bluetongue-001.jpg2007-10-14-bluetongue-002.jpg2007-10-14-bluetongue-005.jpg2007-10-14-bluetongue-006.jpg

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 14th, 2007 at 3:33 pm and is filed under Toowoomba, diary, nature. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

4 Responses to “Nature, red in tooth and claw…”

  1. Ser Kai/Naiiad says:
    October 14th, 2007 at 6:29 pm

    What a beautiful blue-tongue!

    Ryno says:
    Yes, they’re lovely.

    I promise to catch (photo only!) the very elusive brown gecko who comes into the shed and then runs away before I get the camera out. Eventually.

  2. Chris says:
    October 15th, 2007 at 12:14 am

    Oooooooooo it’s a blue tongue skink right? What fun. When I volunteered at the zoo they had those. I love the pictures :) Now I’m starting off my day with a smile.

    I want to see the gecko pictures too

    How fun!

    Ryno says:
    Yes, bluetongues are members of the skink family. They bear live young rather than lay eggs.

    As far as geckos go, the little brown chap has always been too fast for me, so no shots yet. I have some photos of Ghostly, the little white gecko who comes into the house sometimes: I’ll dig them out and post.

  3. Ser Kai/Naiiad says:
    October 15th, 2007 at 6:41 pm

    On another note– I’ve mentioned my Aspie brother who married into one of those scary churches? I confirmed that it is AoG. Yup– that mob that own Hillsong.

    *sigh*

    Ryno says:
    Not all AOG are that extreme: the good and bad of it is that an AOG church is a “pastor-ocracy”, where the minister is a member of the AOG state and nationwide boides, and nobody else gets a “vote” per se.

    This means you can get fairly moderate churches, but allows for runaway woo-woo stuff, or abusers, or Nice Little Earners. And yes, there are a lot of nuts in the woods!

  4. The Ryno Pen » Bluetongue says:
    January 19th, 2008 at 6:16 pm

    [...] You saw the Missus in this post. [...]

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