A Lizard Adventure in Boston

 

The biggest lizards we saw were about eight inches long.

    Today I went to Boston to look for lizards. As crazy as this sounds a species called the Italian 
Wall Lizard lives in a park in Boston. As the name suggests, they are from Italy. While they are introduced, they are not invasive because they aren't hurting anything. There aren't any native lizards to displace, eat, or outcompete. Our  mission today was to find them.

   Thanks to a kid I met in Uxbridge while I was fly-fishing for invasive Green Sunfish after herping, while he was fishing for carp, I got info about where to look for these Italian Wall Lizards. Yes, I purposely made that last sentence complicated just to see if you were following along. When I met Michael, we talked for a couple hours about snakes, fish, and adventures. We exchanged info. Since then we have kept in touch. I helped him with Copperheads and he told me about these lizards. Unlike birders, herpers rarely share info. The big fear is that sharing info can lead to a snake or frog getting killed or captured for a pet. So it is rare to trust someone enough to share information. 

   I met Charles today on the train. He came up from Newport and I met him when I boarded the train in Attleboro inbound for Boston. We had a mile walk when we got off of the train. It was still a little chilly after a fifty four degree night. Almost immediately we ran across someone with a big camera. Being that Charles is not shy, he went up to the guy and asked if he was a naturalist. The guy is a regular and was looking for hawks. He knew the park well and told us the general direction to look for lizards sunning themselves. 

   Sure enough while walking up the path I spotted a lizard sunning itself on a rock. The view was through chicken wire. Still, the view was great even if the photos weren't going to be. Following that lizard, one was right along the walkway. It was on some rocks and we both got some great photos. After that, the fun was on. The sun was warming up the rocks and pavement and the lizards were everywhere. There were also some compost piles and we saw a bunch in there. 

 

A lizard that lost its tail but lived to tell the tale.

    After thirty photos or so, I realized my camera battery was dying. I decided to save the battery in case something great came along. This was not a hard decision because my other goal was to catch one and get a photo of one in my hands. I failed. They are so fast. I probably tried fifteen or more times and only once felt a tail. Every other lizard bolted. So needless to say, I didn't even come close to getting a lizard in my hand photo. 

   All in all, we probably saw forty lizards or more. We were hoping to see one. We took a lot of photos of the one behind the chicken wire and were thrilled to have seen it. After seeing the second one out in the open knowing we had "great" photos we were already satisfied. Once it warmed up and all the lizards were sunning and feeding we were kids at the candy store. I hadn't taken the train to Boston in a decade. Seeing this European lizard and hearing Charles's stories from his pirate days made today an amazing adventure! 

More photos below...

A lizard eating what I believe is a cricket