All summer I had a little buddy who met me at my gate most afternoons. And I’m not talking about the dogs! This little guy was pretty small, very q and covered in scales. At first, when I’d come home he would run off and hide or run up the nearby pine tree, but as the summer progressed I guess he got used to me. Most afternoons he definitely kept an eye on me, but he didn’t run off any more. My little pal was an Eastern fence lizard (also called a pine lizard).

Eastern fence lizards range from Maryland down into northern and central Florida. My little pal was definitely a male. The males tend to be a little more colorful than the females, and have bright blue spots on their bellies and necks. Males are also quite territorial and will warn off intruders by puffing out the area under their necks, and doing “push ups” or head bobs. He used to do that to me before he got used to my coming and going. I don’t think he thought I was a male fence lizard, but in his language he was telling me to leave!

Fence lizards are, like all reptiles, cold blooded, so you often find them basking in the sun on fence posts, tree stumps, rocks, or anything else that will partially camouflage them. I’m sure that’s what my buddy was doing when I would come home in the afternoon. I would almost always find him in a sunny spot on an old piece of fence board that I have near my gate. If I got home an hour or more late, he’d be gone, and so would the sun that hit that fence board. I know the lizard wasn’t attached to me (he was probably annoyed by me, as a matter of fact!), but I got to be pretty fond of him. He’s hibernating now, but I hope he’ll be back in the spring.