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Project Noah Nature School
Lizard, about 6 inches long, tail 3 inches long, body about 1 inch thick, very quick and agile, all grayish charcoal except a line of darker black spots going down middle of its back starting from head going down to base of tail, then turns to alternating grey and black rings down the tail.
Tecolote Canyon, San Diego, CA. Dry, desert area. Has been sunny and dry all week
Partner: friend A.A.
Spotted on Apr 9, 2013
Submitted on Apr 11, 2013
2 Comments
Californiaherps.com is a great site for helping with ID. In this case, the color looks more like S. occidentalis than U. stansburiana. The size would have to be a fence lizard, too; side-blotched lizards are much smaller, but you should check californiaherps.com to confirm.
It's kind of hard to tell from your photograph what this species is as it is partially hidden, blends in so well to the background, and we have only a top view from which to try and identify it. But then reptiles really don't want to be identified...grin. You may, however, remember more than what your photograph shows. As a result, I'd suggest looking at this website: http://www.californiaherps.com/index.htm.... It's got a lot of really good information in it. In particular take a look at these species pages: http://www.californiaherps.com/lizards/p..., http://www.californiaherps.com/lizards/p..., http://www.californiaherps.com/lizards/p.... I'll be curious what you decide on. Thanks for being a member of Project Noah.