Thursday, July 12, 2007

Our Little Green Neighbors

I'd like to introduce you to our little green neighbors next door. We don't know their names yet because they are kind of shy. This picture only shows two of them, but there are three that live there. The other was maybe taking a little walk in the grass. I took the photos out the kitchen window because if you walk outside and they see you, they are gone. It's kind of funny if they get caught up towards the front of the house and their safe zone is in the back of the house and they take off running. Normally they kind of slither along the ground, but if they sense danger it's like they pick up their pants and run high tail as fast as they can.

They only come out for a few hours in the late morning when the sun hits their stomping ground and they need to warm their blood. I've seen one of them pouncing for a few bugs in the grass and still another doing some kind of lizard dance with his head - bobbing it up and down in a weird way. I know very little about lizards so I couldn't tell you what kind they are.

Brother Sprout loves these little guys and wishes he could catch one or at least get up close to have a better look, but they are elusive so we mostly watch them out the window. If we are in the back of the house and Brother is next to me, he will walk over to their "home" and call out "Lizards! Lizards! Where are you lizards?!" You have to imagine how it comes out of a two year olds mouth too. Only I would probably be able to understand what he is saying. It's the cutest thing. Here's some shots I took zoomed in:




If you were wondering, our neighbors built their house not that long ago and the back is kind of their left over spot of construction stuff.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

In the tropics, anything that eats bugs is A-OK. I don't recognise that species, but Ilike them already.

The head bobbing is a scare tactic they use to warn other lizards.

Unknown said...

Wow, they are cute...and big!

Have you seen any big spiders or tarantulas there at all?

Anonymous said...

If my zoology doesnt fail me those are what we call Garrobos down here in Honduras, the species is Ctenosaura similis, very common lizard, more like Iguanas but not iguanas per se.
Nice pics by the way....word of advice, they bite real hard, but as you said generally theyll go off and hide, if you catch one sometime be wary of the whiplashes from their tail and their bite....all in good fun I guess.

Anonymous said...

So this is what sister sprout was trying to tell me, lol. Not as cute as a neighborhood bunny but probably still fun to watch ;-). I can totally hear brother saying litherth, litherth.....Wher you litherth? Cute!