Saturday, April 9, 2011

News of the Cold-Blooded

I just remembered I never told you what happened with that frog I found under the rock. Well, after it warmed up, I looked at the rock again, and it looked like the dry grass Daniel had piled around it had been pushed out from the inside. I lifted up the rock, and the frog was gone. Just as I had hoped for! The frog really was just hibernating and woke up and left. I hope it found its way safely back to water.

In other news, yesterday while I was watering my pole beans, I was startled by a very large Texas Spiny Lizard darting from a hole it had dug, partially uprooting one of my pole beans. These lizards live in trees, not in burrows, so I never expected to see one digging a hole. The hole got partially caved in as I watered.

Thinking about it, I realized it might have been laying eggs in the hole, like a turtle. I did some Googling, and found out that yes, spiny lizards lay their eggs like that as well.

I just went out to check on where the hole was, and it's been filled in. I can still tell where it was because of the pole bean plant that's now leaning over at a 45 degree angle. But where the hole used to be looks like someone came and filled the dirt back in and smoothed it out. It really wasn't like that when I left it. The water caved it in a little, but I don't think it got caved in all the way once I was done watering.

I hope that means the lizard came back and finished the job. There could be lizard eggs in there! Daniel said maybe we can dig them up and try to hatch them inside, but I figure it's best to let nature take its course (no matter how fun watching baby lizards hatch sounds). I hope they do well and eat LOTS of bugs in the garden once they do hatch.

2 comments:

  1. Oh, what cool pest control helpers you'll have if/when they hatch! Is there anything special you can do to keep them happy and encourage them to stick around?

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  2. It seems to me like spiny lizards already like my yard quite a lot, except for the occassional cat predation. I'm sure at least some will stick around.

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