Skink Tale in Five Lines or More

One afternoon, recently, there was a lovely visitor on the deck. Now I don't often think of reptiles as lovely, but the coloring of this five-lined skink cannot be described as anything else. The fact that he/she so nicely matched the flower pot was delightful. Look at his wonderful, feathery, blue toes on his back feet. The full-size (screen-size) picture shows them so well that it is disappointing to see the reduced effect here. Try clicking on the picture above to enlarge it.

These guys are big bug eaters, preferring grasshoppers, but I had to wonder if its tiny brain might be considering the dragonfly on the pot. Or perhaps it was just a blue camouflage attempt. I doubt that many opportunities like this come along for blue lizards.

He/she hung around a bit, allowing me to take pictures through the glass door. Then, with a whip of a blue tail, it was  gone.

Many years ago, shortly after we were married, I was visiting at home when my dad showed me a large Australian pine that had come down in a windstorm. In the rotting wood in a hole in the trunk was a nest of skink eggs. I brought them back to Tallahassee and took them to the preschool where I taught. We kept them in a jar until they hatched. That is one of the more unusual animals I have kept at school.