I have written a few blogs about the wildlife here in North Macedonia. My favourite of all times is There is a goat in the garage! But I still also love meeting Tortoises on the road outside our house. Last week I was cycling along and happened to see a tortoise lying on his back kicking his legs for dear life. I know a sheep lying on his back is the premise to certain death and looking at the tortoise I was sure this was his destiny. I did a quick u-turn, jumped off my bike and flipped him back onto his front. A couple of cars where driving past and the drivers looked bemused at my antics and I wondered if they would have done the same. When I got home I googled it of course, and discovered that usually Tortoises are pretty adept at flipping themselves back and do that by wriggling to a nearby stone, or I thought in this case maybe the kerb, but anyway I hoped the Tortoise was grateful for my good deed.

But that was not my special visitor.

Actually he arrived yesterday, my daughter, just as she was getting ready to leave said did you know there is a lizard in the lounge? Like it was the most normal thing in the world. Anyway, he ran around a while then seemed to disappear, we had left the door open for him (her? who knows?) We didn’t see him again.

This morning I heard some rustling around the plants and sure enough Mr Lizard popped his head up. Stood up by the window to have a little look outside, didn’t seem that impressed with me trying to take a photo and eventually scuttled off out the door.

Of course I then had to research this and found out that is is actually the European Green lizard and is found in south-eastern Europe. It also appears that the male species has a blueish throat and has 2 to 4 different colours on its body whereas the female species has a more uniform colouration. It can grow as long as 15cm, with the tail then being twice as long as the body. They are according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature not an endangered species although the use of pesticides in some southern eastern countries could be a cause of concern.

A funny fact

Green lizards escape their predators by running in a zigzag fashion to confuse them. Which explains why this Lizard was running round in circles in the lounge and I wondered what on earth was happening, the door was open I thought just make a run for it mate.. 

Anyway that adds to my list of Learning to love insects in North Macedonia!