Hunky Lizard

While wandering around Almaden Winery Park near my son's home in San Jose, I heard some rustling in the bushes near one of the walkway bridges. Turning my attention to the ground, squinting and focusing carefully, this is what I saw -->

To those of us in Hawaii who don't see lizards often, save for little three-inch brown anoles, the sight of a husky eight-incher can be quite an adventure. All I can say is it's a good thing the wife wasn't with me or the entire neighborhood would be rousted outside by what they would have thought was a fire alarm.

Actually, I saw three or four of these things, and snapped maybe a couple or three dozen pictures, sneaking up on them and hoping that I could blow the picture up enough to get a decent picture. Wouldn't you know it, the one picture I didn't know I was taking, because of the sun's glare on the camera monitor, was the one that turned out the best.

In fact, the lizard filled almost the entire image; all the pic needed was a little bit of cropping.

Sometimes, it pays to be lucky instead of good.