Saturday, April 26, 2008

More Reptiles: Skink and a Snake

How does this happen? I can go along for weeks and not see any reptiles and then today the boys brought two very different reptiles to my attention.

First at my parent's house, the boys found the remnants of a small gopher snake (Pituophos melanoleucus). I will spare you the gory details but there was enough to identify this creature.

Then when we got home and we were out in the yard, they found a Gilbert's skink (Eumeces gilberti). I couldn't bear to even take photos but I am going to record the nature find here on our blog. After we got a good look at the skink, a Scrub jay came and snatched the skink and flew away. This is the same scrub jay that has a nest of babies outside my daughter's window in the oleander bush. We were able to see three baby birds in the nest today. It was a circle of life sort of day around here.

Here is the nest.


Here is the best I could get of the babies in the nest. (Try to click the image to make it larger.)


All in all, a good day for nature study and just the way I like it....just taking it as it comes to us as we go about our day.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom