Backyard Resident

This little guy divides his time between hiding under my Lantana and Nandina spp. bushes, and then racing through the chain link fence as soon as one of the dogs spies him and tries to chase him down. I appreciate him giving Mr. Big a little bit of a cardio workout every now and then. He is a desert spiny lizard, Sceloporus magister.

These guys do the head-bobbing, push-up behavior that is probably very intimidating if you are only 2 mm tall, but this afternoon, he was just lying still as a statue, hoping that one of the big, slobbery dogs wouldn't notice him. They didn't. But the big, scary human did, and shooed the dogs inside 'til he decided to retreat to the safety of the fenced area.