Gotta find them all! continued

My brief field guide for the park continues with the lizards, which means skipping both the fish and frogs.  Fish are easy enough to see in some of the larger ponds, but not so easy to photograph.  Meanwhile, the frogs were simply too fast for me.  Each time I walked up to a pond, I heard them plop into the water before I spotted them.  I will also be skipping the rabbit at the end for the same reason; the only rabbit that I have seen so far darted off into the bushes before I could get my camera ready.

Lizard: Anoles are the most abundant vertebrates I have seen in the park.  In particular, I find Carolina (a.k.a. green) anoles perched on many of the herbaceous plants and bushes.

A juvenile Carolina anole (Anolis carolinensis) shortly before it disappeared into the vegetation.

However, anoles are not the only lizards in the park.  I recently, and very briefly, saw a skink as it buried itself under the leaf litter.

Butterflies: Butterflies of quite a few different species are also very common in the park.  The most striking butterfly I have seen is the common buckeye, which I have now spent quite a bit of time chasing back and forth across the meadow.

This common buckeye (Junonia coenia) kept fluttering a few more feet away each time I approached it.

Follow the links if you are interested in seeing three more of the butterflies I have identified in the park: a tawny emperor (Asterocampa clyton), a gray hairstreak (Strymon melinus), and a dusky-blue groundstreak (Calycopis isobeon).

Heron: The ponds and the bayou -- or rather, the fish and other prey in the ponds and the bayou -- attract a number of heron and egret species.  Especially along the bayou, all I have to do is look up and down the embankment, and I can usually spot one standing in wait near the edge of the water.

A juvenile yellow-crowned night-heron (Nyctanassa violacea) out in the rain.

Lastly, why did I skip over the beetle?  I considered the generic "beetle" on the sign to be somewhat redundant, since ladybugs (featured last week) are beetles -- not bugs.  For contrast, you can see some true bugs (again) by clicking here.  There are other beetles in the park besides ladybugs, but they will have to wait until another post.

A green and white knight

As I was strolling through a nearby botanical garden, I heard a rustling sound coming from a bush alongside the path.  After searching for a moment, I located the source: a green lizard that was considerably larger than any of the anoles in our garden.

A green lizard with white markings amongst the foliage.

Although I expected the lizard to scurry off as I approached, it did not.  Instead, the lizard froze, and I was able to get a closer look at it.

A juvenile knight anole (Anolis equestris).

However, a closer look just convinced me that I had never seen a lizard like it before.  I thought that the distinctive-looking white bands would make identifying this lizard a simple task.  In fact, it was the reverse.  I eventually learned that the white bands are only present in some juveniles (possibly only the females) of this species: the knight anole (Anolis equestris).  In contrast, the stripes below the eyes and above the shoulders persist into adulthood; these can be used much more reliably to recognize the knight anole, which is yet another species introduced to Florida from Cuba.

Lounging lizards

I was not able to find any native frogs in the garden.  Consequently, it may be too late to help the native frog community by actively removing Cuban tree frogs (Osteopilus septentrionalis).  Yet, native frogs are not the only ones threatened by Cuban tree frogs.  Among the many other types of prey that Cuban tree frogs consume are lizards.  Nevertheless, despite the presence of several very large Cuban tree frogs, anoles were extremely abundant in the garden this winter. 

A Cuban brown anole (Anolis sagrei).

Unfortunately, the majority of these anoles belonged to another species introduced from Cuba: the Cuban brown anole (Anolis sagrei).  This anole has itself played a large role in displacing native anole species.  The second most common anole was also a non-native: the bark anole (Anolis distichus), which has been introduced to Florida from the Caribbean.

Another anole, probably a bark anole (Anolis distichus).

I did find one native species persisting: the Carolina anole (Anolis carolinensis).  However, this species was quite rare compared to the two introduced species pictured above.

A Carolina anole (Anolis carolinensis) on a palm frond.

Given this composition of the anole community, it is not clear to me whether removing Cuban tree frogs would improve or worsen the situation for the native anoles.  Removing the native anoles' predators might simply increase the number of their competitors.