Before I moved into my present neighborhood in 1995, I had not seen a wild lizard in Missouri. Odd, then, now that I live blocks from downtown to the north, the industrial West Bottoms and Southwest Trafficway to the west and South, and the commercial Crossroads to the east, that I spot one to seven 5-stripe skinks every year in my own yard. Today, for the first time, I found a young bluetail (5-stripe skinks' tails are vivid blue-lavender when young) on my second floor porch. He spied me and made way somewhat casually to a nearby piece of furniture under which he could hide. He poked his snake-like head out, and tested the air with his tongue a few times, even getting brave enough to come out and lounge in the sun for a few seconds before realizing I was still watching. I came inside to get my camera phone, but I just couldn't get the skink to pose while getting close enough to capture his beautiful tail, so I swiped the photo illustrating this entry off someone else's blog (thanks, dogsandjen).
Other creatures I've seen in my neighborhood, of the wild variety, include o'possum, racoon, squirrels, mice, toads, ring-neck snakes, and lots of birds. I saw a gorgeous golden finch on my sunflowers about a week ago! We regularly get the fantastic cardinals and bluejays for color. Then there are the sparrows, robins, mosquito hawks, doves, and partial flocks of starlings that burgeon in the autumn to form enourmous rolling dragons in the sky above the interstate every evening.
Closer to the ground, and on the smaller scale, we've got plenty of worms, slugs, and snails, plus spiders (big, beautiful gold and black garden spiders, and many others I haven't identified), butterflies (monarchs, cabbage whites, and others), katydids, ladybugs, cicadas, fireflies, and of course, many flies, ants, mosquitoes, sowbugs, fruitflies, bees, wasps, and termites.
Termites actually entered my building recently, and did some damage to window frames and hardwood floors. I was especially glad to see 2 skinks in the last week after being concerned about their welfare due to the treatment I applied for the termites earlier this spring. The skinks are back and I'm happy as heck.
