My best photos are here:
www.lacerta-bilineata.com/ticino-best-photos-of-southern-...
Western Green Lizard (Lacerta Bilineata) | Adult Male | 05-2021 | Ticino | Switzerland
More TICINO/TESSIN Wildlife Photos (all taken in my garden in Monteggio/Ti, Switzerland):
it.lacerta-bilineata.com/ramarro-occidentale-lacerta-bili... (the website exists in ESPAÑOL, FRANÇAIS, ITALIANO, ENGLISH, DEUTSCH)
My latest ANIMAL VIDEO (warning, it's a bit shocking):
www.youtube.com/watch?v=4T2-Xszz7FI
ABOUT THE PHOTO:
In case you wonder why I chose the title above, I assure you it has nothing to do with the lizard in the photo possibly having an alter ego who secretly fights crime and supervillains in the reptilian underworld (although I wouldn't rule that out completely: the reptilian underworld is full of surprises, even if our tiny village is a far cry from Gotham City 😜). No, as you might have guessed, the title refers to the rather particular colors of the individual in the photo.
The dark, shiny scale pattern of this adult male is very unusual, and I've personally never seen anything quite like it during my many years of herping in the Ticino. I photographed the fella at the end of last May, which is in the midst of mating season for the species and a period when adult males in our region generally are of a striking emerald green with a turquoise head and look nothing like the one in this photo.
And let me tell you: this fella knew he was something special, and he REALLY didn't want to be photographed (which could of course just have been him trying to protect his secret "super-lizard" identity, but the reptile community so far remains mum on that matter). What I can say for sure though is that this was by far the shiest, most prudent adult male western green lizard I've ever come across.
During my nearly three week stay at my vacation home in the Ticino last year I only ever caught glimpses of him, usually from afar, and he always saw me first. The fly honeysuckle shrub across the street from my garden is where he spent most of his time, and from the pergola in my garden I had a good view of that shrub. So whenever I detected movement between the leaves I would grab my camera, leave my garden through the back and - applying the "sneaky stealth approach" I've perfected over the years and am very proud of - try to get a photo of whatever caused those fly honeysuckle leaves to move.
As I already told you (namely here:
www.flickr.com/photos/191055893@N07/51405389883/in/datepo... ), I initially had a very hard time last year to get my green reptilian friends to pose for me, but I eventually did succeed. This guy though had me nearly lose my mind. My pergola is approximately seven meters away from the fly honeysuckle shrub in question, and although that was too much of a distance for a usable photo, many times I was able to see very clear glimpses of the fella through the lense of my camera when I used the full range of the zoom.
And the really funny thing was: he always looked directly at me. Even though I was miles away (well, from a lizard's perspective) and completely harmless to him from that distance, he never let me out of his sight. I often used the zoom of the camera to check for lizard activity from afar, and none of the other individuals ever showed this behavior. As long as I stayed in the garden, they completely ignored my presence.
But this guy clearly had my number; he seemed to actually recognize me and know that I was the irritating human who kept showing up next tho the honeysuckle bush. The reason I'm convinced he was able to distinguish between me and other persons was that there would be other people in the garden next to mine who were sometimes even closer to the shrub than I was, but his eyes always remained fixated only on me. And by the time I got to the lizard residence, he would inevitably be gone.
Which, of course, made me want to photograph him even more. The elusive lizard man became a bit of an obsession of mine (well, actually more than just a bit to be perfectly honest 😉 ); in my mind I started referring to him as "the phantom", because he kept evading my camera. The most maddening thing was that I saw him nearly every day - but he stubbornly and consistently refused to have his picture taken.
It was sheer luck and literally on the last day of my vacation that I spontaneously approached the shrub without even trying to sneak up and more in the hope of finding some interesting insects, that I caught the object of my desire completely by surprise. He seemed so shocked at my sudden appearance that he remained absolutely still (my guess is that he hoped I hadn't seen him), and so I was finally able to capture this secretive and mysterious (super?) lizard and put my obsession to rest. 😊
So I hope you enjoy this (hard earned!) photo; as always: many greetings from Switzerland and have a lovely weekend everyone - and don't hesitate to let me know what you think!
