Great Basin Fence Lizard, Sceloporus occidentalis longipes, Santa Ysabel Open Space Preserve, Southern California. This Fence Lizard had the most wonderful blue belly that showed off really well while he did pushups as a territorial warning. Unfortunately, I was fighting with my camera settings which were on auto-everything and focusing on the front edge of the ground squirrel hole. By the time I switched to aperture priority and got back some depth of field, the show was over. I managed to get a few pictures anyhow.
If you look closely, there appears to be some yellow behind the hind legs which is why I decided this is probably a Great Basin Fence Lizard and not a Sagebrush Lizard. Of course, I have been known to be wrong on these things and he is living in a ground squirrel hole rather than out on a rock or fence post... They eat your standard lizard fare of bugs and are prime food for a host of critters including hawks, mammals (coyotes for example) and snakes. This one was nesting in a ground squirrel hole with a female (not shown).
For tomorrow's post, Bambi.
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