Little Lizard

Today's adventure was a trip to the Fort Ord Natural Reserve with guides from our local Museum of Natural History. It's an area that is not usually open to the public, so it was a special field trip. We were to be on the lookout for Horned Lizards, which were not to be found, but I spotted this newly hatched Western Fence Lizard (Sceloporus occidentalis) on the path. There was a quick lesson in how to hold a lizard, something I never thought I would need to know, and then I was eye to eye with this creature not much bigger than my thumbnail. I marveled over its tiny claws the same way you'd count any baby's fingers.

We all got to use special close-up lenses on our phones, which was really fun. And of course I had to order one as soon as I got home...

Fort Ord is a dry chaparral landscape, see the Extra. The gorgeous red stuff is poison oak. The Fort was closed as a military base in 1994. Much of the land is now a National Monument. Although most of the land is open to the public, this was the first time we visited any part of the property.