I took this photo a couple of months ago when my sister was here on holiday.
I know it isn't the best picture in the world, but when you are out for a walk and a 6 ft monitor lizard walks by just in front of you, you don't have much time to focus the camera.
Thank heaven it didn't mistake me for a tree.
This was taken at Shoal Bay on a walkway by the beach and it disappeared under a garden shed which was on stumps. I guess it must have had its home there in someone's garden.
That's a great capture.....the markings on the lizard are so interesting. I'm certain that I probably wouldn't have been around to take a picture! Not sure who would have frightened who!!!!
@elaine55 Thanks Elaine. They are brilliant aren't they and this one just walked past me. He just blended in with the grass and I almost trod on him before I spotted him ha ha.
@hermann He was pretty big. I had just been telling my sister that there is a monitor lizard who lives somewhere round this spot in Shoal Bay and then we spotted him.
@savannah51 I had just been telling my sister that there were lizards in this area and then we spotted him. He just walked across my path, luckily he was walking away from me. I don't think I would have been so brave if he had been coming towards me.
@kathiecb Luckily he was walking away from me when I spotted him, so I was braver than if he had been heading towards me. I got quite close to get this shot. He wasn't a bit bothered that I was there. Probably thought he had the upper hand as they have huge claws.
@april16 Thanks April. They usually have stripes on their legs, but they are scaly animals and the stripes are made up of a series of dots, this one hasn't got all his dots joined in a row ha ha,. You may be able to see that the stripes are made up of dots on his tail.
@paulaw She was impressed. She encountered most things during her visit. We even had two bush fires while she was here too.
She had never seen anything like a monitor lizard in the wild before and we even saw a water dragon at a restaurant by the river when we went to Morpeth for the day. She even got bitten by spiders a couple of times which wasn't too good. Must have been new blood that was the attraction for them
@paulaw Ha ha. She survived very well. The spider bites were only jumping spiders and they aren't too bad. The mozzies took a shine to her too, so we covered her in aeroguard every time she went out and she was fine then. The mozzies don't bother us. It must be foreign blood that they like.
@dgrynn@eyesmile@eyesmile Thanks for your concern. I wouldn't have been so brave if he had been walking towards me, but because he was going in the other direction I thought he had figured that I wasn't a tree. I don't think they are aggressive and I have never heard of anyone being attacked by them. They tend to shy away from people.
Believe me we have far more dangerous creatures in Australia than monitor lizards. Although having said that they do have huge claws.
April 7th, 2014
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She had never seen anything like a monitor lizard in the wild before and we even saw a water dragon at a restaurant by the river when we went to Morpeth for the day. She even got bitten by spiders a couple of times which wasn't too good. Must have been new blood that was the attraction for them
Believe me we have far more dangerous creatures in Australia than monitor lizards. Although having said that they do have huge claws.