RAUK - Archived Forum - Posts by Dorsetgal:

Hi, I am new to the forum and wonder if you can help with a query please?

These two lizards have been on my patio for most of the afternoon, are they common or sand lizards?

Are they mating?

Photos not top quality as I took them from inside the house through a double glazed window!

Thanks for looking,

Dorsetgal 

Thanks for that...I did wonder if they were Sand Lizards, but haven't seen any quite that green before.

Which is which, do you know?

I live in Dorset, the clue is in my name, lol, on the edge of a SSSI, literally on the edge, my garden backs directly onto heathland, so much so I have had to erect deer proof fencing! I also had to have two ponds removed as they proved a bit of a haven for snakes!

I often see lizards basking on my patio when the weather warms up.

Regards,

Dorsetgal

The ponds had to go as I had adders, grass snakes and slow worms in the garden. We think the adders were nesting in the compost bins, certainly the grass snakes were eating my fish! One adder got caught in the pond netting and died

I have a dog and wanted the garden to be somewhere I could let him run without watching his every move for snakes.

As for the lizards, well they come and go as they please and I am willing to share the garden with them!

Cheers,

Dorsetgal

It was definitely an adder caught in the rolled up pond netting that died ... got it ID'd by the local warden.

It was also definitely grass snakes that were eating the fish from the ponds, netted one myself to ID it.

We thought it was adders in the compost, but only by guesswork, I am prepared to accept it might have been the grass snakes though.

The slow worms were in piles of lawn clippings.

Thankfully, no further sightings of snakes in the garden since the ponds were removed 2 summers ago.

Cheers,

Dorsetgal

Just the green one, the male was out and about on the patio this afternoon, no sighting of the other one though.

Regards,

Dorsetgal

Yes, I guess so, but intertestingly, no adders seen since the ponds went, or grass snakes or slow worms for that matter.

However, the ponds going was part of a major garden re-design  ... I inhereited the ponds when I bought the house and really they were too much work for me and the snakes were the final straw!

I am seeing the lizards daily on the patio at the moment, but only one at a time, not both out like they were the other day.

Do they eat ants by any chance? They seem to be spending a fair amount of time in a part of the patio that is very warm (88 this lunchtime) and overrun with ants.

Regards,

Dorsetgal

They're back!

Well, I had plenty of activity with the sand lizards on the patio last year, even had the youngsters stray into the house and had to mount searches for one that my father kept reporting as present in his bathroom! Got it eventually, and returned it to the patio! Sadly, we found one tiny one had made it into the living room and expired behind the curtains

Today, I had the first sighting of the year, a male sand lizard making its way across the grass at some speed in the general direction of the pot where they have settled over the past couple of years. All happened too quickly to take a photo though!

I'll look and see if I can find some of last years pics to share.

In the past few years I have had some sandies visiting and nesting on my patio.

They seem to be keen on coming into the house! We usually manage to catch them and return them outside again, but last year, sadly we found a couple of (tiny) expired ones behind the furniture.

So, any ideas on how to make the patio more attractive and the house less so please?

I know we could simply leave all the doors and windows closed, but south facing in south Dorset in the summer ... we'd expire!

Above: prepareing to evict an unwelcome visitor, Below: Patio habitat

Hi Folks,

A friend took these pics late one evening earlier this week and was questioning if they were Natterjacks or not.

I am leaning towards common, opinions please.

(Yep, not great pics, but you are experts)!!

Reason we need to know: Cos they are in abundance at a geocache site