He has an escape hatch just down inside the corner cavity of the block retaining wall, not far away from where he's mostly basking in the sun on top of, and right close to my back-door.
I believe he sun-bakes during the day to re-charge the batteries, and that he might then go night-stalking for slugs and snails. The block retainer walls used to be a haven for tiny slugs but I doubt they ever get to grow to 'big slugs'. I've never seen them at least, nor a snail; and I like to think he's out there patrolling of a night.
As the colder weather moves on into Winter, the blue-tongue will disappear back into the wall, or some other chosen place perhaps, to hibernate until around September, October when I'll get to see him again, the next year perhaps.
Sharing with Murietta 365 for:
What a great capture of expression.
ReplyDeleteIt might be your closeups are getting "closer," but I swear that thing keeps getting bigger and BIGGER! One winter, it will crawl out from its hiding place and TAKE OVER THE WORLD!!! (I hope you have a video camera ready too! I feel a movie version coming on!) :-)
ReplyDeletewow you have a personal slug catcher
ReplyDeleteWent to Mildura for the weekend and came across a blue tongue on one of our walks, scared my cousin has she nearly stepped on it.
ReplyDeleteWonderful capture.
He's a beauty....my aunt had a very friendly one years ago who used to take food...with his big blue tongue straight from her hand! she also had a stumpy tail lizard friend at the same time. Great close up shot.
ReplyDeleteJenni
An awesome capture! Love the detail -- the scales (if that is what you would call them?) are so cool.
ReplyDeleteLove your story behind this photo. :)
that's a gorgeous shot, carole! up close and personal! he's beautiful!
ReplyDeleteWow! Great photo! It sure does have a dinosaur look to it.
ReplyDeleteseems to be a useful little fellow. :)
ReplyDeleteWonderful to see Carole..
ReplyDeleteI would love to see one of these up close.
A fantastic capture..xx
Great capture of your cool looking Blue-Tongue.
ReplyDeleteThat blue-tongue beats the heck out of our geckos, although I am happy to have them around to catch the mosquitoes. What a fabulous shot, Carole!
ReplyDeleteWhat big brown eyes he has. How large is that lizard?? Looks as if he could be relatively big with those big eyes! Great shot with perfect focus. Bet you could see your reflection in his eye if you zoomed.
ReplyDeleteOh my, what a great shot! Love him!
ReplyDeleteHugs, Cindy
Jeanne, the Australian Museum website says that the Eastern Blue-tongue is the largest member of the skink family, and that they can grow to almost 600 mm in total length, of which about 360 mm is head and body".
ReplyDeleteMy resident blue-tongue though is one of the unfortunates picked up by a kookaburra in his younger days and given a thrashing. Subsequently they can drop the tail. The stump rapidly heals and a shorter, regenerated tail grows back after a while. This one hasn't much left after his hind legs.
What a gorgeous shot, Carole! Wow! That's awesome!
ReplyDeleteGreat pic. I'm going to show to my husband who keeps two of them. They are very docile.
ReplyDelete