... in the Upper Saxon Switzerland. This summer was a very special one for us photographers - the damp weather with all the rain gave us such wonderful morning moods

...in der Hinteren Sächsischen Schweiz. Dieser Sommer war für uns Fotografen schon ein ganz besonderer - das feuchte Wetter mit dem vielen Regen bescherte uns solche herrlichen Morgenstimmungen

Tags:   Saxony Sachsen Sächsische-Schweiz SaxonSwitzerland sandstone Sandstein Hintere-Sächsische-Schweiz Zschand Pechofenhorn Winterstein Winterberg Nebel Nebelstimmung Landscape Kletterfelsen Felsen Fog Deutschland Germany Berge Sunrise Sonnenaufgang Morgen morning Misty mood Elbsandsteingebirge Weifberg Teichstein

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Morning on Velebit mountain...

Tags:   Velebit Lubenovac Croatia Lika Hrvatska morning landscape pejzaž Sjeverni Velebit National parks Leonardo Đogaš

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"Relaxing in the Sun" | Western Green Lizard | Lacerta Bilineata | Adult Female | Monteggio, Ticino | Switzerland

Photographed in June 2015 in the community of Monteggio

WHOLE SERIES ON MY PHOTO WEBSITE: www.lacerta-bilineata.com/post/lacerta-bilineata-westlich...

ABOUT THIS PHOTO:
This particular lizard lady figures quite prominently in this gallery (she's also the subject in the previous photo), though she looks different every time depending on the angle, the time of day and how her skin reflected the sunlight in the moment when I took the photo.

A few days after I first spotted her as a green dart dashing away to safety from the presumed threat I posed, and after various similar encounters in my garden, she eventually decided I wasn't all that dangerous and simply not worth the trouble and waste of energy of fleeing.

From then on, as long as I approached her very slowly and without any hectic movements, she would usually remain in place, though almost always with very wary eyes. Here I was able to get within a distance of maybe two meters, and unfortunately the quality of this photo is not the best (too much zoom, no tripod - it is, what it is ;-) , but I just adore the peaceful expression on her face as she was relaxing in the sun.

ABOUT LACERTA BILINEATA:
The western green lizard belongs to the family of the Lacertidae. This is the family of the wall lizards, true lizards, or sometimes simply lacertas, which are native to Europe, Africa, and Asia.

The Lacerta bilineata is native to Andorra, Croatia, France, Germany, Italy, Monaco, Serbia, Slowenia, Spain, and Switzerland. It was introduced in Guernsey and Jersey in the Channel Isles and the United States, and there are also introduced colonies on the south coast of the U.K, notably around Poole Bay in Dorset.

DESCRIPTION: Adult western green lizards reach a length of 30 to 45 centimetres including tail (there may be regional differences regarding the size of the species). Males are generally a bit bigger than females, with a slightly bulkier head and body.

With females of the species colors and color patterns can vary greatly and range from dark green and brown to shining emerald green, turquoise and blue and everything in between, even typical male color patterns.

Adult males tend to look more alike (though there are variations too), with their back usually a striking yellowish to emerald green interspersed with black dots, a yellow or yellow-green belly and blue face, all of which much more pronounced during mating season.

As juveniles the lizards are mostly brown with a yellowish green chest and belly. Within a year, as adolescents and sub-adults, they develop white lines or dots on both flanks often in combination with black spots until their eventual color patterns start to shine through.

The two white lines on the flanks of the juveniles - which with the females often remain visible even in adulthood - are also responsible for the species' Latin name "bilineata" which means "two-lined".

Tags:   female lacerta bilineata western green lizard lézard vert occidental ramarro occidentale lagarto verde lizards reptile westliche smaragdeidechse flickr nature switzerland Ticino Malcantone swiss fauna suisse svizzera herp blue animal planet Animal Planet Animals (All Kinds) EarthNatureLife lacerta bilineata western green lizard westliche smaragdeidechse lagarto verde occidental lézard vert occidental ramarro occidentale wildlife

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Western Green Lizard (Lacerta Bilineata) | Male In "Wedding Suit" During Mating Season | Monteggio (CH) | May 2021

IF YOU LIKE THIS PHOTO, PLEASE VISIT MY BEST NEW GALLERIES (NOT - YET - ON FLICKR ;-) HERE: www.lacerta-bilineata.com/western-green-lizard-lacerta-bi...

ABOUT THIS PHOTO:

When male western green lizards are in love, their face turns blue. This doesen't happen instantly (they can't change color at will like chameleons); the lizards need to shed their old, slightly less colorful (but also very pretty) skin first, and once that is accomplished, they appear in the beautiful "wedding suit" you can see in this photo.

With this look they try to impress the lady lizards during mating season, which lasts approximately from May to June, but the colors are the most striking in the immediate aftermath of the lizards losing their "old coat". I was very lucky to capture this gorgeous male at this very moment; in fact, you can still see parts of the old, dark skin covering the top of its head and other parts of the body where it hadn't quite come off yet.

But I was lucky in more than one sense with this photo. Let me explain (I have an idea some photographer or other here on Flickr will be able to sympathize with the anecdote that follows ;-). This year in May when I hoped to photograph the green lizards around my vacation home with my newly purchased camera, I soon realized something was different from the years before, because I couldn't find a single one of my green friends in their usual spots in my garden.

As I would learn over the next few days, the entire western green lizard population had relocated from my garden into a huge fly honeysuckle shrub just outside my garden next to an empty horse pasture where they were relatively safe from the growing number of cats in our village that had specialized in lizard hunting. Up in that shrub, not only was it hard for ground predators to get at them, but the lizards also had an excellent 360° view of their surroundings.

Western green lizards are naturally very shy, but this apparently traumatized group now had become hyper-alert to anything approaching them, and they immedately fled into the thickest of the leaves whenever I tried to get near enough for a usable photo. It took me another several days until I had finally figured out at what times of the day the males usually left the fly honeysuckle shrub; I wanted to know their "schedule" so I could be there before them and blend in with the environment, ready to photograph them as soon as they would show up on the ground.

And all my meticulous, hard work seemed to pay off: the first day I took this appraoch a gorgeous male showed up just where I expected it to (although Mr Lizard had me waiting for alomst two hours!). Alas, I hadn't considered where the sun would be and had installed myself in such a stupid angle that the lizard was backlit; in all the photos the little devil appeared only as a mostly black silhouette against the bright morning sun. I cursed my stupidity, tore out my hair and was close to throwing my expensive new camera against a wall in anger and frustration. Then I remembered the cold beer in the fridge and realized that life was still worth living, and I promised myself to do better next time.

The next day I was smart enough to make camp in a spot form where the object of my photographic desire would be perfectly lit (from the lizard's perspective, now I would be the black silhouette against the sun ;-). I waited. And I waited some more. And it was hot and getting hotter by the minute. After nearly 3 hours during which my neighbors started to give me very funny looks (in fact, they had already decided the day before that I must be crazy, what with standing motionless in front of a bush for several hours in the burning sun), around noon, I'd had enough. And that's when I heard something moving in the grass.

And there he was: barely visible through the thick green carpet, but definitely coming towards me. A few seconds later a virtual lizard king appeared, in all his gorgeous green and blue glory, and perfectly lit - and that's when I heard loud, happy voices approaching. Two young boys came running - and the lizard stopped dead in its tracks (unfortunately, it was still a bit too far away for a good photo). I'm not religious, but I started a quick prayer then and there (please God, please: let these kids not be running towards me - PLEASE!!!).

But nope, God apparently remembered that I usually refer to myself as agnostic, and surely enough the two boys ran right to where I was - and where Mr Lizard now wasn't. All that yelling and running was too much for my lizard king: goodbye and "auf Wiedersehen"; see ya next year - and off he went. And that was that. I couldn't believe it; I felt a frustration so intense wash over me I regretted ever having picked up a camera.

As for the kids, don't worry: both boys are alive and well ;-) It was the first day of their Pentecost holiday, and they had just arrived in the village. I was standing next to the empty horse pasture, and the two little boys now innocently asked me where the horsies went (they had obviously been looking forward to seeing them and now were very disappointed). I took a deep breath and muttered that I had no idea.

I don't know how other photographers would have felt in that situation, but I only wanted to be left alone (and possibly tear out what was left of my hair and reconsider that wall and what nice noise it would make upon collision with my camera ;-). Needless to say, the kids had other plans. Now that it was clear that there were no horsies, I had become the main attraction, and they weren't going anywhere. So I swallowed my anger, accepted that - obviously - the kids didn't do anything wrong (and also that I would probably never ever be able to get that desired shot with my new camera).

The boys were eager to know what I was photographing, and so I told them everything about western green lizards, about their amazing colors and how rare and shy they were, and that they were among the largest lizards in Europe and a protected species - and my two new friends became instantly fascinated. Now they wanted to wait and see this magical creature with their own eyes. I assured them there was no chance the lizard would come back after all the noise "we" had made, and just as I said this, one of the boys yelled "I see it!"

And sure enough, he was right. Apparently my lizard king had decided that a little yelling and running wasn't gonna get between him and his favorite sun-basking spot, a little heap of cut, dry grass underneath the fence of the horse pasture. I told the kids to be very still - which they were - and then we all got to see how this beautiful creature emerged from the grass, very, very slowly and carefully, and positioned itself on the heap of dry grass in such a way that it got the perfect amount of sunlight.

So in the end I got my portrait shot - and quite a few more in the weeks that followed (which you can find on my website www.lacerta-bilineata.com ). During the remainder of their holiday the two kids would run into me every now and then, and every time they excitedly talked about this fantastic, blue-headed reptile they had seen with me that day. I guess only time will tell, but I hope this encounter has sparked an interest in nature in them (I have a feeling the next time they spend their holiday in our little village, the horsies will have some reptilian competition ;-)

Tags:   love green blue animals nature bokeh wildlife macro close-up gros plan flickr lacerta bilineata western green lizard outside beautiful environment fauna vert verde grün blau bleu blu protected species rare color colorful portrait azul lacerta bilineata western lizard lézard occidental ramarro occidentale lagarto westliche male maschio mâle macho Männchen wedding suit mating season smaragdeidechse reptile reptiles herp wild herps herps switzerland Ticino Malcantone Swiss suisse svizzera animal westliche smaragdeidechse lagarto verde occidental lézard vert occidental ramarro occidentale Sony DSC-RX10 Mark IV

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Pfatter is a small village near Regensburg, which is surrounded by several natural reserves. The Pfatterer Au is a 359-hectare nature reserve located north of Pfatter and south of the Danube. The nature reserve includes meadows in the river valley, old Danube waters with siltation areas and floodplain vegetation. It is also a resting, breeding and wintering area for rare bird species such as the curlew, which has its only breeding occurrence in the district of Regensburg.

However, the development of the Danube reduced the flow dynamics of the river, which had a negative impact on the floodplain areas. I observed that shipping traffic disturbs the animals. To the north of the Danube is the Stöcklwörth nature reserve, to the east is the Gmünder Au nature reserve.

Adapted from Wikipedia.

Tags:   Natural preserve Pfatter Oberpfalz Upper Palatinate Bavaria Bavarian Forest Ratisbone Regensburg

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