The American 5 Lined Skink lives in one of my trees. I had thought it would be nice if a swarm of bees moved into the hollow…but today I spotted 3 skinks. The arrows show where each one was. You can see my hives in the back ground and my “blue bee” chair.
I love this tree…it has such an unusual extra “leg” and the root system is beautiful.
I see Carolina Wrens go inside looking for bugs. At first I thought they wanted to nest there.
I think this is a Broad Headed Skink. It was the largest of the 3. I would guess about 7-8 inches.
It was chasing one of the others down the tree.
I looked a bit lower on the tree and here was the one it was after. This one is starting to get the red head and was a bit smaller. It’s tail has already started to fade. I am not sure if the 5 lined Skink and the Broad headed skink are related. It looks as if I have both.
This juvenile was on another part of the tree. Look at the beautiful colors. I see a lot of these running around the deck. The larger ones stay closer to the tree.
I’m glad I was checking out the tree before I posted this…..I spotted this pair on the tree. They did their best to try and evade me but I was persistent and got some video of them. Now I know where the expression “being right on someone’s tail” came from. The male followed wherever she went. I don’t think the female is in any of the pictures above…but the male could be.
Cool sequence. Both species are in the same genus, but I wonder if what you have here is a mature male broad-headed skink chasing away some juvenile males (or perhaps pursuing a female, i.e. the one with the fading blue tail).
ReplyDeleteDave
neat! i love those colors!
ReplyDeleteVery interesting. We don't have that kind around here. Helen
ReplyDeleteThey are so beautiful. Diane
ReplyDeleteOh, I love these photos! What fabulous colors. Thanks for sharing them,
ReplyDelete--Patricia Lichen, www.patriciaklichen.com
Great job capturing the skink's beautiful colors.
ReplyDelete