Panethos<p><strong>Not one, but TWO baby horned lizards!</strong></p><p>When we are hiking in our home state of New Mexico or in nearby states, we are always on the lookout for wildlife. One of our favorites to see are <a href="http://www.hornedlizards.org/more-about-some-of-the-horned-lizard-species.html" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">horned lizards</a> (a.k.a. Horny Toads, or Horned Frogs). To date, we’ve only seen one here and there while hiking and all sightings have been at an elevation above 6,000 feet.</p> Fly-snatching baby horned lizard seen at 8,400 feet on April 22nd <p>Well, last week we hit the jackpot, so to speak, as we saw TWO during the same hike just east of Santa Fe while trekking 8,577 foot tall Picacho Peak. And not just two adults, we saw two recently born baby ones, neither of which was longer the an inch to maybe 1.5 inches in length from nose to tip of their tail. So flipping cute!</p><p>Consistent with our previous sightings these charming little lizards (we believe both were young <a href="http://www.hornedlizards.org/more-about-some-of-the-horned-lizard-species.html" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Greater Short-Horned Lizards</a>) were active above 6,000 feet — one at approximately 8,400 feet and the other other at approximately 7,500 feet. </p> Baby horned lizard seen at 7,500 feet on April 22nd <p>An added bonus was while we were observing the youngster at 8,400 feet, a fly made the fatal mistake of landing approximately 2-3 inches from horned lizard. The lizard snatched that fly and gobbled it up so fast, you had to blink to believe what you just saw. For a short bit of time you could still see part of the fly’s wing hanging from the lizard’s mouth. Very cool…unless you were the fly. </p><p>So, we will definitely be on the lookout for more of these handsome little critters this warm-weather hiking season. Hope everyone living in their territory also gets a chance to see a horned lizard while out and about. Peace!</p><p><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://panethos.wordpress.com/tag/environment/" target="_blank">#environment</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://panethos.wordpress.com/tag/fun/" target="_blank">#fun</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://panethos.wordpress.com/tag/geography/" target="_blank">#geography</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://panethos.wordpress.com/tag/hiking/" target="_blank">#hiking</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://panethos.wordpress.com/tag/horned-frogs/" target="_blank">#HornedFrogs</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://panethos.wordpress.com/tag/horned-lizards/" target="_blank">#HornedLizards</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://panethos.wordpress.com/tag/horny-toads/" target="_blank">#HornyToads</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://panethos.wordpress.com/tag/santa-fe/" target="_blank">#SantaFe</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://panethos.wordpress.com/tag/travel/" target="_blank">#travel</a></p>