An "Eggcellent" Discovery - Finding Five-Lined Skink Eggs

Dear Henry,

Fish is really good at I SPY and his latest find was really cool.

While weeding the flowerbed next to the mailbox, he had moved one of the boundary stones and discovered a nest of Five-Lined Skink eggs.

We have a few of these little lizards living around our house.  They are great bug catchers and are rather cute.

Like the wren experience, finding the skink nest changed many of the preconceptions I had about lizards.

For example. skinks tend to their eggs.

I had always thought that all reptiles laid eggs and then abandoned them.  They don't - or at least skinks don't - mom was sitting with her eggs when Fish moved the edging stone.

It is considered to be one of the most common lizards in the US, although you probably won't find it in the West because it loves humidity.  In Arkansas, they are everywhere, although I am reading reports that they are threatened in Connecticut.

They aren't very big, about 5 inches with the tail and can live about six years.

I am not sure how long these eggs have until they hatch - the development of the eggs is temperature related and can take anywhere from 24 to 55 days. I wonder how long it will take the babies to emerge after that.

Stay tuned for updates.

xoxo a.d.
Location: Bella Vista, AR, USA

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Bucket List Book Adventure: Book 15 - Histories

Image
Dear Henry, It's been a while, but I've finally gotten back to the bucket list book adventure  and have finished "Histories" by Herodotus. Hair- odd- uh-tus.....hair-odd-uh-tus.....It's taken me a month to learn how to pronounce his name, and I still say it wrong half of the time. Anyway, let me tell you all about the Histories. Herodotus, the "Father Of History," is somewhat of a mystery. He was believed to be born around 484 BC in the vicinity of the ancient Greek city of Halicarnassus, today known as Bodrum, Turkey. Maybe. There are a lot of question marks.  His life has a lot more question marks. Herodotus traveled extensively throughout the Mediterranean, the Middle East, and North Africa and was believed to be in Athens at the beginning of the Peloponnesian War. And, of course, his death is also big of a mystery. It is estimated to have occurred between 430 and 420 BC, and he probably rests in Thurii, Italy, having left Athens around 430 BC for the...
Read more

Basilicas, Books, & Bringing Home the Bacon

Image
Dear Henry, Wow, it's been a while. Let's catch up. I've been so busy! Several months ago, I took a part-time job at a local bookstore to get out of the house and out of my head (plus, you know, the discount). I had just begun adjusting to the physical demands of retail work when the Christmas shopping season (and working hours) began. I'm not quite sure if it's because of "the accident" or because I'm a pudgy middle-aged woman, but wow, I've been exhausted. So, I put everything on hold and dedicated myself to reading the entire 14-book Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan ( read his Everyday Patriot biography here ). I've been keeping my feet up when I wasn't at work, and I'm just now getting used to the job. This season of holiday hours has helped me feel better about my Camino plans. I've always worried that it would be too challenging, but I now know I can spend six to eight hours a day on my feet, multiple days in a row.  Now,...
Read more

The Resurrection of the Old Lick Cemetery In Roanoke Virginia

Image
Dear Henry, I have always felt a strong call to "pray for the dead," even as a child.  My grandmother was an avid genealogist (I inherited this love from her), and I used to accompany her to various old graveyards, where she transcribed and photographed old headstones. I would spend my time trying to scrape overgrown grass and weeds from the headstones, having developed the strange belief that they couldn't go to heaven if you couldn't read the name on a tombstone. It always made me so sad to see unkept headstones. While I've (somewhat) grown out of the belief that an unmarked grave condemns people to walk the earth as ghosts, the image of Patroclus, in Madeline Miller's book The Song of Achilles ( review here ), wandering the world as a shadow because no one would write his name down made me cry. I was also very sad to see this poor, unkept little cemetery right as I pulled off Interstate 581. One of my first thoughts entering the city of Roanoke for the firs...
Read more