Guernsey south coast walk

[foxfish]

We set off this morning around 8am with high expectations of seeing one or two of our elusive green lizards.
The green lizard is only found in one area that extends along our south coast, they can get pretty big, around a foot long.
Sarah, my partner, spotted one within 10 mins but it was to fast for me to see.
So unfortunately no photos of the green lizard but it was a lovely two hour walk ending in St Peter Port to watch the hill climb....

 

[Edvet]

Well now i expect a pic of a green lizard, hop hop, go to it

 

[foxfish]

Yes well I have been tying for about 40 years to get a decent picture of one, all I have managed are bits of grass with a bit of extra green in between the blades!
However folk are always posting pictures on our local Facebook wildlife page....

 

[Angus]

Lacerta viridis or lacerta bilineata? how do you even tell.... One thing is for sure, that is a stunning looking lizard.

 

[Edvet]

viridis is my guess

 

[sparkyweasel]

L. viridis is the eastern species, so it would be a long way from its natural range.
L. bilineata is the western species.
Telling them apart is not easy, it's only on the basis if genetic information that they have been separated, and there's still some debate about whether they should remain as a single species.

 

[foxfish]

They are often described as Western green lizards, the males are spectacular at this time of year in their splendid breeding colours.
There is a stuffed one in a museum that is 16" long but... folk claim to have seen even bigger ones!
Unfortunately they are not common, at least not common like they were in Victorian times.
Records from around 1880 -1900 suggest a much more wide spread population over the island.
In fact our Victorian friends tried to boost the indidgnenst population by releasing wild caught French green lizards.
Their decline is blamed on all the normal world wide woes but... mainly on cats!

 

[foxfish]

Another nice bank holiday weekend, we watched model power boats, checked our a brown tree ant nest, walked a 3 mile section of cliff, spent an hour watching the Hill climb and an afternoon watching the Autocross finals.

 

[Angus]

Some nice coastal views there. @foxfish

 

[foxfish]

Yeah, nice ah, I was lucky to be born near the sea.
In the third picture it shows our only nudist beach, pretty inaccessible without a boat but there is a path!
The ants Presumed extinct on mainland Britain by 2005 but we still have them in Guernsey, they are quite common on the cliffs, and occasionally found inland in south facing pine forest.
Amazing to watch and pretty big!

 

[foxfish]

More green lizards....

 

[Edvet]

Thx

 

[foxfish]

I have never seen so many before, we are sure it is to do with the dry hot weather we have been experiencing lately.
There are far more small ones around this year.