Survival of the, er, Biggest...& a Pretty Bird

not our lizard, this picture is from the DWR

The other day, Number One brought home a small lizard. As you may recall, we have a larger Collared Lizard that we've had for quite some time. The collared lizard is a fun little pet, who now lets ME feed him by hand. No more dangling and jumping dead crickets on fishing line, I just grab a cricket, stick my hand in there, and the lizard eats it. I think he loves me. Honestly, he knows when I am in the room, and lets me know when he's hungry. He occasionally lets me pet him. He doesn't do this for anyone else. He loves me. Although, I'm pretty sure he might like to taste one of my fingers.

So anyway. Number One put the smaller lizard in with our collared lizard. I hoped the collared lizard wouldn't eat the little guy. Of course, collared lizard was hungry so he went after the little lizard, but didn't catch him. I distracted the collared lizard with three or four crickets in a row, and I thought it might be the end of the Natural Selection happening in our dining room.

The next day, I didn't see the little lizard. The Collared Lizard looked suspiciously fat. And seemed guiltily sluggish. I offered him a cricket, and he didn't even blink. I'm quite certain the little lizard was his dinner.

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Today, Wifey saw a strange, beautiful bird in one of the trees outside. We looked at it with binoculars, a skill at which I am out of practice, and my glasses didn't help matters. We didn't know what kind of bird it was, but it had a variety of strange calls, including one that sounded like a small child saying "Owww!"

picture from Bird Watcher's Digest.com

Our bird field guide has been misplaced during our temporary stay at the bunkhouse, but I finally found the bird online. A Yellow-Headed Blackbird. If you go to the Bird Watcher's Digest website, you can hear some of the blackbird's calls too.

I need to get a pair of binoculars. And find our bird books!