July 7, 2024

Now that we're past early July, lizards throughout the distribution of Side-blotched Lizards are feeling summer's sting. Uta still come out this time of year, but only early in the day or late in the afternoon. The heat of the day is just too much for them. The biggest, oldest female Side-blotched Lizards are finishing their fourth and final clutches in the far north of eastern Oregon (@laura99) and Idaho (@phytographer) right about now. Smaller young-of-the-year gravid females appear to be finishing their second clutches. Many of those can still be observed the past few weeks (@cjackson, @adirado).

Farther south the hatchlings are appearing in earnest throught the range with vividness of that solid colored head being a good indicator of their hatchling status (examples here, here, here, and here by @juanloredo, @alderjulius, @hsug1747, @susanmf. The pattern of hatchlings is pretty vibrant as well because they are so fresh and new.

Since 20 June, 2024, when I last reviewed the Uta observations, there have been 309 observations. Observations of note include:

—this observation of a particularly colorful male by @ocmelissa.

—this observation of a late-season copulation by @dalemeister.

—this nicely gravid female with a late-season clutch by @misstaken.

The observation of the week goes to @cwbarrows for this observation of a depredation event on Uta by a Roadrunner, which are voracious lizards predators. That is an adult male that the Roadrunner caught, so a nice substantial meal at least. Here's to hoping the Uta had a chance to reproduce before being consumed. This is a great photograph too, so thanks to @cwbarrows for sharing.

As always, thank you to everyone who has observed a Side-blotched Lizards in the past few weeks. Your contributions are greatly appreciated.
—Pete Zani

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Posted on July 8, 2024 07:52 PM by petezani