West Texas Wildlife Digest #1

In the backyard of the house I'm renting in Midland, TX, there are at least two turtles.  They are each about 5" in shell diameter.  They have different markings.  The one pictured here is more gregarious and active.  He's often up on the concrete patio.  If you pick him up, he jumps forward.  He snaps his jaws at Sabkha when she comes sniffing.

Two weekends ago, I went riding over at the Outback Adventure track, east of Stanton, TX and right along I-20 on the north side.  This is about 40 minutes east of my house in Midland.  Outback owns one square mile which covers sandy desert and about half of a semi-dry lakebed.  After riding around on my Honda in the hot sun for two hours, I was packing it up and heard some rustling in the brush.  The source of the sound was a Horned Lizard.  He didn't shoot blood from his eyes.

 Entrance to Outback Adventure Track.