I know feeding is discouraged and I dont usually do that. But this is for a good reason!
I noticed some of the family of foxes that visits, have early signs of mange. They bring me so much joy that Id hate to see it become advanced mange.
Ive ordered the Arsenicum/Sulphur "potion" from national fox welfare and popped some on bread. I really hope it works, and sorry if this post isnt allowed!
So late tonight, I came out the front to smoke a cigarette & out the corner of my eye I see something moving very slowly towards me, at first glance I assumed it was a slug, but when I looked closer I noticed it had little legs and a tail, I got my phone from inside and shined my light on it & noticed it was a lizard, I went to get an old pint glass we don’t use and I gently, hoped if I put it next to it, that’s it would go in… With much patience it eventually did. Then I was able to take a proper photo. In 28 years I’ve never ever seen a lizard here in the uk, I don’t even think I’ve ever seen one for myself abroad. Then after I took the photos, I intend to through it onto the grass, it was only about a meter and a bit from out of the grass, but it landed on the concrete, I panicked and went to check on it and it was on the pavement, we live in a cul de sac of private bungalows, so it’s not a busy street, there’s hardly cars about, I realized I shouldn’t of thrown it on the hard ground & I when I checked it wasn’t moving, of course I know nothing about lizards and I didn’t want to touch it in case it was poisonous.
I came inside and googled what it was, which it was a spotless brown lizard, according to studies it was a female viviparous lizard, that when fully grown, are 4 to 7 inches, but this little thing were a tiny baby girl lizard. I then googled if a lizard would survive a fall, according to google, it should not be thrown away on hard concrete & if in distress it would detach its tail, I sat there with intense guilt, my heart ached, I went back out to see if it was okay and it had already moved, I couldn’t find it. I didn’t throw it too hard… I hope the baby lizard is fine!
I’ve seen this alot lately and can’t find the name of it. It’s hardy and wild, growing out of walls and in flower rn!
TIA
I made two discoveries in my garden over the weekend:
- lots of bindweed
- baby slow worm
The slow worm was under some fabric sheeting over an overgrown veg bed where the bindweed is, and we need to rip up the sheeting and cut the growth back to be able to remove the bindweed. I'm thrilled to have a little slow worm guest (never seen one before and assuming theres probably others there too), and really want to avoid causing it any harm whilst essentially removing its home.
Once the work is done I'll try place some bricks/roof tiles to form little hiding spots for them, but I'm after some advice on if theres anything i could do/avoid doing whilst removing the sheeting and cutting stuff back. Is there a way i can gently encourage the slow worm(s) to leave beforehand, and if so how?
Thanks for any advice!
Location is Berkshire if that helps, and it was about inch and a half in length