When I first got a decent DSLR, I wanted to learn to become a great photographer. Wildlife is a popular subject and one animal in particular caught my attention: the lizard. Lizards are abundant in South West France, they enjoy lying very still in sunny locations and are surprisingly photogenic.
I was fortunate enough to see this wonderful green lizard, Lacerta viridis, while hiking up the Chemin de la Mature in the Pyrenees.
If you’d like to know more about this wonderful species, click here.
Coming back down from the Col above Etsaut, what should slither across my path but a beautiful adder, Vipera berus. True, not a lizard, but fascinating all the same.This one is in the process of moulting. Its tail is already showing the new skin with the old skin showing some amazing blue scales.Same lizard, just a bit closer. Click on the image to see the colours.This large lizard lives in the Pyrenees at a height of about 800metres. I saw some lizards as high as 1700m, well above the snowline. Doesn’t its head look dinosauric?Are they mating or just playing piggy-back? I didn’t like to ask.Enjoying the sunshine. Being poikilothermic, lizards need the warmth of the sun to keep alive.Luckily lizards stay perfectly still while you shoot them.This one was only about 6cm long.About 15cm of lizard. An impressive creature.
