Observations by lindaeskin

A bumpy-skinned, gray, big-headed lizard. We have lots of western fence lizards, and this doesn’t look like them. Also not an alligator lizard. I don’t think I’ve seen one like this before. Interesting feet. Any clues?

Friends on Facebook are saying it’s a gecko, and possibly one released as a pet. That’s really unlikely in the semi rural area where I live, where there haven’t been kids for decades, unless it’s just naturalized here. One friend said there’s a native gecko, but this is not it.

We had one tiny plant of this about 10 years ago. First time I had seen it. I protected and encouraged it, and it has spread overtime. Now we have an area maybe 6‘ x 12‘ with quite a lot of it every spring.

Some sort of mosquito. I am guessing at the ID, just based on what I’m seeing in my photos. It has distinct stripes on the legs, at the joints. The real mystery is why we have at least a dozen or so of these inside the house. No standing water that we can think of, and we always have doors or screens closed, keeping our cats inside. We have been bitten, and one that I squished had blood. One had the courtesy to pose on the bathroom mirror so I was able to sort of get a view of the underside.

If this is indeed an Asian Tiger mosquito, then here is some more information on those in our area:

https://www.sandiegocounty.gov/content/sdc/deh/pests/aedes.html

A fairly large butterfly enjoying the sprinkler under an avocado tree. Those leaves are pretty big, just for scale. Another one came along just as I was leaving. Sorry for the terrible image quality. These are screen grabs from a very zoomed-in video. But I think they give the idea. The butterfly’s body was yellow, like the markings on its wings.