The other night we were all outside, doing outside things. The Spouse was watering the veggie garden and I was picking what was left of the plums whilst loudly bemoaning the fact that the bloody possums were destroying my plum trees. I gave Harry the dog a stern talking to about keeping up with his end of the bargain. I reminded Harry that it was HIS job to bark at the possums, not mine and that he had better lift his bloody game. Harry gave me a shamefaced woof and promised to do better, ten minutes later he made amends by showed me where a a blue tongue lizard was lurking in the wood pile.
This is only a small blue tongue, compared to the resident lizard that lives under the water tank and often scares the shit out of me by impersonating a tiger snake.
Normally blue tongues are quite shy and it isn’t often we see them out in the open like this one. He didn’t seem to be frightened of us at all and posed for a number of photos. Harry decided that the middle of the photo shoot was the time to make amends for his lacksadaisical possum scaring performance and was keen to protect me from this vicious, vicious lizard, sigh. I am sure that in Harry’s doggy mind the blue tongue was about to leap for my throat with all the ferocity of a pythonesque rabbit. So The Spouse caught the blue tongue for me and after we had checked him over for tics, we released him into the garden near the frog ponds and he disappeared under a large rock.
The next day the blue tongue was out in the middle of the yard again and I spent some time filming him as well as taking some more photos. I don’t know how long this lizard will survive here, as he is very nonchalant about his personal safety. He spent ages out in the middle of the yard in full view of any passing predators and at one stage he decided that it would be nice to rest against my foot for a bit.
It is quite difficult taking a photo of a lizard leaning against your shoe, as I had my foot tucked under the chair and I was on an awkward angle but I think this photo is quite sweet, in a this is what my life is really like kind of way.
Here are a couple of the macros I took yesterday and from these photos you can see why it is that when the large resident lizard does his tiger snake impersonation I nearly have a little heart attack. Those few seconds between the thought, “Eek a snake” and “Oh its only you” make my heart beat rather quickly.
So there you go my lovelies I hope you enjoyed these photos of one of my favourite wild creatures that share my backyard.
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Wow… he’s very handsome!
Loved it. Thank you. We saw a blue tongue when we were at Cowra the other day, but he/she disappeared into a crevice in the rocks quick smart. Or perhaps a little faster than that.
And yes, the resemblace to a tiger snake would have my heart beating faster too. I don’t do snakes well. At all.
excellent clarity and focus point choices. 🙂
Beautiful pics! I love blue tongue lizards, we get loads out here. We actually saw this weird looking lizard the other day. It was big, with orange and black or dark brown stripes, running in front of our car across the road. Never seen a lizard move so fast! Really bummed we couldn’t photograph it. I thought it was a snake at first
We also get goannas out here (huge) but I haven’t seen one myself yet. And lots of frilled neck lizards lazing on the road as we drive. We live in such a great country.
He’s so, so beautiful!!
He’s clearly adopted you as his family, being secure enough to venture into the open and hang around your feet, so you need to give him a name. But please, not Bluey. That’s what *everyone* calls their lizards.
I did enjoy that, and the lizard seems to feel the same way!
Ah, how many times in my childhood do I remember doing the exact same thing – thinking the blue tongue in the garden was a snake? These are great pics, thanks for sharing them!
I love them! As kids we would catch them, remove all of the ticks from their ears, give them a drink and then let them go again 🙂