An often overlooked spot that's a short drive, or metro ride away. Free, and open everyday.
A skink (broad-headed?, little brown?) clings to a tree
Here's someone else's photo of a broad-headed skink where you can really see its coloring. Both types of skinks live in much of Virginia. We also saw a bullfrog, a few herons, lots of canada geese and their young, a million turtles, and a beaver.
6 comments:
Yep, one of the most ignored jewels of the city
Ssssssshhhhh. Don't tell anyone about this wonderful place with acres of lotus in bloom around the third week in July. The rest of the year it only has jillions of tropical and day water lillies.
I've been here and its a pretty amazing place which many people don't know about. Now \what is that creature on the tree? I can't imagine that its a lizard in this region, so I am guessing a salamander of some sort? Look at its red head - - maybe its just me, but I've not seen that sort of thing around here ever, so if its commonplace, that's rather interesting.
It was definitely a lizard, but what kind I couldn't say for sure. I was shocked to see it just hanging out there. I think it might be a little brown skink, or a broad-headed skink. I didn't want to frighten him by getting too close, and I could only see him from the side (which makes it a bit tougher to tell).
I'm fairly certain it was a broad-headed skink.
It is a wonderful place, but too bad for the oil slicks, and other nonpoint source pollution that threaten the whole watershed and is very visible in the park. We really need to do a better job when we spill oil, fuel, and other petrochemicals. It may be a hassle for us to contain them at that moment, but if we don't they end up in beautiful places such as this. The park is beautiful, but dotted with oil and other debris.
Most importantly, when you pump gas and have a spill let the attendant know so s/he can put down oil absorbing material and properly dispose of the materials. Never leave a petrochemical out to simply become run off. Never dump them on the ground or down the drain.
However, you can bring them to the household hazardous waste (HHW) collection site:
http://dpw.washingtondc.gov/dpw/cwp/view,A,1202,Q,640279.asp
For more info:
http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/blitz/kendesc.html
http://www.nrdc.org/water/pollution/fanacost.asp
-Robby
Post a Comment