On Wednesday, July 14 a little lizard stayed on one of our plants all day long. I thought it was a one shot deal, since I didn’t see it as it got dark. Next morning it was there again. Since then my son and I have figured out that he simply moves around. Photos from the first sighting are here.

On Thursday when my son was at my house, he identified it as a young Knight Anole. My son is 11 and totally loves herps (from Herpetology, the branch of zoology that studies reptiles and amphibians. His favorite are snakes of all types. Today we saw two black racers!) We weren’t sure of its gender. My son suddenly called it Frederick, and I added Frida. It became Frederick/Frida.

In the previous post I mention that on the first day he got territorial when another lizard came by, and stuck out its dewlap (skin under lower jaw). I wasn’t able to fire off a frame of that, unfortunately. We’re pretty sure only males have dewlaps. Regardless Frederick/Frida has stuck, although sometimes we say “Freddy.”

Thursday my son and I witnessed our friend leap about a foot between two branches of his favorite hangout plant! We’ve seen other types of neighborhood anoles leap quite impressively, belying their size. When we went to bed at 11 Thursday night, Freddy was still there. It was a rainy and stormy night. There were thunderclaps. In my very sleepy state I wondered how he was, since even some wind from the lake has him holding on tighter.

He was there Friday morning, all safe. After I got back from dropping my son off at day camp, it had rained and I saw Freddy on our Starburst plant which has much larger leaves. He was drinking water from the droplets of rain with very fast, almost imperceptible flicks of his tongue. Here he is on the Starburst:

We’ve been thinking about how the plants were going to get watered. Frederick/Frida is very aware of us. His eyes turn or his head shifts if we come up to the sliding glass door and when we step outside.

Today, Saturday, we had to water the plants. So gently and carefully we did. He was undisturbed by it. That was a big relief! And we sprinkled a bunch of water on the Starburst. Sure enough, he leaped his way over there and drank!!!

Here’s our bright little critter on his favorite perch, although today we’re noticing him on a lot of the plants. He’s really made our patio his universe. This one shows what a long tail he has.

He’s even got a sun umbrella!

(Creature Series)

© Pamir Kiciman 2010