Backyard and Beyond

Virgin Gorda’s dry landscape was full of lizards, which was reason for rejoicing. (I haven’t seen so many since I lived north of Naples, Italy, in the early 1970s. I’ve yet to spot one of NYC’s somewhat famous Italian wall lizards, known to live in the Bronx and to be kestrel food.) Most were 3-5 inches long. The small ones jumped like frogs, using their powerful hind legs to shoot themselves several times their body length. The next one was just over an inch, but its tail seems to met some misfortune — perhaps a boy:
A couple of them were just under a foot long:These Spanish bayonets always had some sunning on their leaves: Or tucked away between the leaves: The trail up Virgin Gorda peak was also quite lizardly. There were snakes there as well, most just a slither along the side, hardly visible, but this one lay across the trail as if to block our way:It skedaddled soon enough, though. The blue in the eye is from my camera’s flash.