Lizard?

[LowEnd]

On my way back this morning this guy caught my eye. Small like 3”.

Then I realized they were all over the place.

Haven't seen lizards on LI in at least 25 years.

What is it?

[Nite_Bite_00]

common lizard i think. i have been seeing them too. always in the sunny spots.

they have been making it through the winter as well. 

[LowEnd]

I’m sure they are common. Just can’t remember the name.

Used to see lizards and garden snakes a lot when I was a kid. If I remember right if you grabbed their tail it would fall off and grow back.Then they just seemed to disappear. Maybe the kid in me disappeared.

I grew up in Nassau and still live here. Maybe these are more common in Suffolk now a days.

[Nite_Bite_00]

i am suffolk, nassau as a kid. . i don't remember the lizards when i was a kid. the only lizards i saw where on trips to florida, running around on the hotel side walks and walls.

[the3fishheads]

Italian wall lizard. Escaped from a crate at Kennedy many years ago. 

[fishinthedark]

We have the common lizard across the pond from you in pelham bay park. Two spots where I see them pretty often. Usually sunning themselves on rocks

[LowEnd]

37 mins ago, the3fishheads said:

Italian wall lizard. Escaped from a crate at Kennedy many years ago. 

Thanks for the ID.

There were definitely lizards when I was a kid, that’s going back 45 years. They were all over.  Then they seemed to vanish just like the snakes.

Still can’t remember what we called them, probably was wrong anyway.

[baldadonis2002]

3 hours ago, the3fishheads said:

Italian wall lizard

Yup... the LI Aquarium in Riverhead is overrun with them in the summer if you walk around.

 

Had one living under my porch 2 summers ago..tried to catch it to mate with my Jewish Floor Frog..

 

 

[dc1874]

Franklin Square...Garden City South area are infested with these 

[gellfex]

Grew up in Valley Stream in the 70s and never saw a single lizard. "italian wall lizard" would make it a gecko, but that looks more like a skink to me. I'll do some research.

 

Invasives are interesting, sometimes they thrive outside of where they should. There's fig trees all over here that get killed back to their roots every 2 to 8 years, but always come back, and there's colonies of Monk Parakeets that build huge communal nests on power transformers in Queens and Hudson County to get central heat in winter!

 

 

EDIT: Accoding to this article https://www.hofstra.edu/pdf/orsp_russell_burkefall05.pdf Ground zero for the lizards was Garden City in 1966. Seems like they're nether gecko nor skink.

Edited October 7, 2022 by gellfex

[The Fishing Nerd]

21 mins ago, gellfex said:

Grew up in Valley Stream in the 70s and never saw a single lizard. "italian wall lizard" would make it a gecko, but that looks more like a skink to me. I'll do some research.

 

Invasives are interesting, sometimes they thrive outside of where they should. There's fig trees all over here that get killed back to their roots every 2 to 8 years, but always come back, and there's colonies of Monk Parakeets that build huge communal nests on power transformers in Queens and Hudson County to get central heat in winter!

 

 

EDIT: Accoding to this article https://www.hofstra.edu/pdf/orsp_russell_burkefall05.pdf Ground zero for the lizards was Garden City in 1966. Seems like they're nether gecko nor skink.

This thread has been really informative and that article was fascinating, thanks for sharing!

[bridgerat]

Lizards on LI?! That’s crazy. Snakes? Sure, we used to catch them all the time. 

I was born in 1970 and grew up in Baldwin on LI. Never saw a lizard in all my travels on LI until I left in 2000.

 

[the3fishheads]

Elmont has a large population of them lizards.

[gellfex]

13 mins ago, bridgerat said:

Lizards on LI?! That’s crazy. Snakes? Sure, we used to catch them all the time. 

I was born in 1970 and grew up in Baldwin on LI. Never saw a lizard in all my travels on LI until I left in 2000.

 

Nope, apparently they spread slowly at first, like 1.5 miles per decade! I did catch a baby box turtle at Muttontown Preserve on a Scout camping trip.

[bridgerat]

15 mins ago, gellfex said:

Nope, apparently they spread slowly at first, like 1.5 miles per decade! I did catch a baby box turtle at Muttontown Preserve on a Scout camping trip.

I used to see box turtles in the woods near the LIRR in the 80s.