16 July, 2024

In the past 8 days or so since the last post, there have been 133 observations of Uta added to iNaturalist...all U. stansburiana. There are still late-season gravid females running around across the range of Uta so long as there isn't local drought. A number of sightings of such females, such as here, here, here, and here, should come through late July at least (by @bonnienickel @desertslender @editwench @decoyhedgehog ). However, the proportion of the population breeding will decrease and more and more observations will be of post reproductive females, like here, here, and here (@jeffwitters @jorgehvaldez ).

Observations of very late season copulations are also appreciated, such here (by @kestrelsparverius )

The colors on males will begin to fade (such as here and here) as their testosterone titers drop following pretty close on the heels of the last ovulating female (by @lonnyholmes @ncjordan). There are still some nice observations of these males though, such as this brute (@tmvan1 )

It's baby lizard season!!!
Really, it's the hatchling that dominate observations right now, such as here, here, here, here, here, and here (by @owenthebug @sam0127 @brycethebug @lilly175 @lonnyholmes @jorgehvaldez). I saw several hatchlings last week in Oregon, so they're hatching across the range right now.

Despite all of the above interesting and worthy observations, I selected this observation by @tmvan1 of a large gravid female in really pretty breeding coloration of orange under the chin and around the blotch. Older Uta sometimes really maintain that color nicely across the length of the breeding season. For example, farther north where females can live to be three, four, or even older, sometimes they really get an orange blush across the entire breast. In southern populations this only shows as orange in the armpit area, or around the blotch. Regardless, this female was a really pretty observation, so thanks for sharing @tmvan1.

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 16, 2024 07:48 PM by petezani