watching lizards

I'm fond of the five-lined skinks. Got a few photos- a young blue-tailed one and a mature male were sunning on stumps near my deck stairs.

They were quite near each other-

I wonder if the blue-tailed one was female, being courted by the male?

There was another male nearby- could tell because the second brown one was missing its tail, just had a two-inch stub. (For that matter, it looks like this male lost and re-grew his in the past). There was another young one skittering around the garden beds, it seems to have a hiding place under the euonymus on that side of the yard. I didn't surprise one out of the bottom of the compost pile this spring, though.

Birds- I have been watching the cardinals, robins, sparrows, starlings and an occasional chickadee. There's a hawk that cruises over the property regularly. Some kind of small woodpecker is a regular now too, and the nuthatch has returned- it is bold even comes up on the deck I usually don't see it until I startle it away. Crows and blue jays pass through but never stay long, and this year I'm pleased that I've seen the mourning doves actually out on the lawn, and a catbird seems to have taken up residence- I hear its mewing calls often. I think there are more birds around than last year. I'd put out a feeder for them but dread my cat.

Maybe someday I'll get better at taking photos of the birds. Right now I'm happy I got some of the lizards!