This little Broad-headed Skink (Eumeces laticeps) has had an encounter with a predator, most likely some bird, that has marred her beauty but saved her life. Skinks are fairly small creatures, this one from nose to the base of her tail is 3 to 4 inches. She would normally be invisible in the litter on the floor of the forest where this picture was taken. She was scampering along the handrail of a boardwalk when I happened along. She was kind enough to pose for me and I have a series of photographs from this magical encounter. Most of the skinks I have ever seen were brief glimpses of them scurrying off at high speed. I was very lucky to be able to spend as much time with this tiny creature as I did.

Notice her yellow racing stripes, 2 down each side and her blue tail. Not all skinks are this colorful, many of the ones I have seen are dingy brown or grayish. The skinks as a group have a shiny, almost glass-like quality to their body scales. I suspect that slick, shiny appearance helps keep the dirt and mud from sticking to them.

If you look closely at the picture, you will see that this colorful, little lizard is missing the end of her tail. Many of the smaller lizards have a defense mechanism where a special band of muscles near the end of their tail can constrict when they are attacked and break off the end of the tail. The tail tip will squirm and wiggle.

The skink is betting its life on the wiggling tail tip distracting the predator while it makes a quick exit to safety. The lizard sacrifices a small portion of its tail in exchange for survival. The lizard, if it lives long enough, will regrow the missing tail to its former glory. And that, folks, is the end of my skinky tale.

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The frog pictured here is a Green Tree Frog, Hyla cinerea. I was visiting the Fort Worth Nature Center and Reserve on a cool spring morning in 2012 and found this little guy on a sedge leaf growing on the edge of a marsh.  These frogs are found throughout the southern U. S. and Fort Worth is on the western edge of their range. I felt very lucky to see this little fellow because they are usually in the canopy of southern forests far from the ground. This frog was about 2 inches long and about an inch wide. The coloration here is typical for this species but their color can vary from yellowish to dull greenish to slate gray depending on the time of year and their activity. This little fellow was pointed out to me by a fellow hiker and was so well camouflaged I would have walked right by him and missed the chance to take his picture. I have seen this species in its natural environment only once in my lifetime.

This frog belongs to the family Hylidae. This is a diverse group that contains over 450 species and are distributed world wide. As a group, they are slim-waisted, long-limbed, and small in size. Females are generally larger than the males. In North America, members of this family include tree frogs, chorus frogs, and cricket frogs. Most folks learn that these creatures live in their area and learn to recognize their calls as evidence of their presence. The males of each species of these frogs have unique sounds they make to attract potential mates which make the night time forests musical places in the spring time. All frogs have to lay their eggs in water where they hatch and develop for a time as tadpoles, eventually becoming frogs which return to the environments where the adults live.  I was lucky that I happened to be there when this individual was heading back to his treetop home.

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On a cool morning in March 2017, I was traveling towards home after a productive photo safari. I chanced upon three Mule Deer, Odocoileus hemionus, in a field of winter wheat. The morning was cool and the wind was blowing. All three deer were bedded down in the wide open space of this field. Naturally, I was struck by this opportunity, I parked near by, and began to approach these deer. The older female pictured here was the first to jump up, she studied me closely as I approached. She didn’t look too pleased to see me.

The eight-point male was the second to arise and begin browsing the winter wheat. In this picture, the younger female is bedded down where they were when I first saw them. The male looks like he is sticking his tongue out at me but he had just been grazing on the winter wheat.

Throughout my years in the field, I had always encountered deer droppings in neat little piles. I have seen cattle do their business and I figured that deer did theirs the same way, and it always made me wonder how they got theirs to land in such neat little piles. As you can see, their method of delivery is much like I’ve seen many a dog or cat use. Needless to say, I am no longer curious how they make those neat little piles of droppings.

The size of the male and young female is relatively smaller than the older female seen above. These could be a breeding group, or the younger two may be related to the older female. The two younger animals acted as a pair while the older female acted more like a parent supervising younger animals.

The last picture shows the young buck with all four feet off of the ground as he and the females left my vicinity because I had broken their fight or flight barrier.

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The Red-eared Slider, Trachemys scripta elegans, formerly known as Chrysemys scripta elegans belongs to the family Emydidae which contains the water turtles and land dwelling box turtles found in North and South America. These turtles have dome-shaped shells and all have some degree of webbing between their toes. The group contains strict carnivores and strict herbivores, as well as, omnivores.

The red-eared turtle was at one time the most commonly sold turtle in the pet trade. As a result, they have become introduced into areas not in their traditional range and in some cases have become an invasive species. They are in the top 100 most invasive species listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

When they are young, these turtles are distinguished  by the cherry red patch on the sides of their head near the ear, and by the yellow stripes on the head, legs, and shells. The red patch can vary in size during the life of individual turtles and can even disappear due to increasing production of melanin in the skin. Older turtles can become so dark that the yellow marks on their heads, legs, and shells are obscured making identification difficult.

These turtles can live twenty to thirty years and can grow shell lengths up to and beyond 16 inches. They enjoy fresh-water environments including lakes, swamps, streams, and slow-moving rivers. They are often seen sunbathing on rocks or fallen logs where they can quickly slide into the water to escape danger. They are ominivorus but feed mainly on aquatic plants.

Sometimes, you find them perched in places that make you wonder how they got there.

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Natrix rhombifera rhombifera, the Diamond Back Water Snake is found throughout most of Texas. They prefer habitats close to permanent water. The genus Natrix contains many species of water snakes and these belong to the Colubridae family which is one of the largest families of snakes worldwide. Colubrids in the U. S. are the nonpoisonous snakes that act to control the population numbers of various small animals.

Natrix rhombifera rhombifera prey on fish, frogs, salamanders, and crayfish. When cornered, or threatened, these snakes will attack and bite. This kind of behavior and their resemblance to the venomous Cottonmouth or Water Moccasin gets them killed despite the benefits they provide to the ecosystems where they live.

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The animal pictured in this photograph is a Prairie Racerunner, Cnemidophorus sexlineatus viridis. It is one of two species found in Texas. This picture was taken in Fort Worth and is a part of the state where both species of  Racerunner can be seen. This specimen has green stripes along its sides and a faint line inside the dorsal brown stripe giving this guy 7 stripes down his back. These two characteristics distinguish this lizard from his cousin Cnemidophorus sexlineatus sexlineatus, the Six-lined Racerunner. Also, the blue belly and throat identify this animal as a male.

The Prairie Racerunner belongs to the whiptail family (Teiidae) whose members occupy North and South America only. Cnemidophorus is the only genus in this large family found in the United States. There are nine species in Cnemidophorus found in the U. S.

These busy little lizards are active during the day and zip along hunting insects and small animals. They like grasslands, shrublands, margins of rivers, streams, and lakes. Rocky habitat in these areas provides them places to hunt and hide.

This picture shows a female who is in the process of shedding her outer layer of skin. Lizards and snakes periodically slough off their outer scales after having grown an entire new layer beneath. In effect, they give themselves a new set of “clothes”.

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