Alligator Lizard

At this point in time, there's a gap in my journal because I lost my SD card last night after taking it out of my camera and getting involved in something else before I got the images uploaded to the computer. Hopefully, it will turn up somewhere soon.

I was gone all day yesterday and the weather was very hot today, so I didn't get out to take a closer look at the burned area in Shell Ridge until this evening. Most of the trees were spared except for the lower limbs. It looks like I'll have to look elsewhere for the oak leaf galls later this summer, but I saw some other creatures out and about--several alligator lizards and one vole. This little guy had had some sort of close encounter as he was missing part of his tail. I guess it's true that lizards can regenerate their tails, but this looks painful.