Brown anoles, an introduced species from Cuba and the Bahamas, swarm over the Miami area and south Florida in general. My mother-in-law's yard in Coral Gables, for example, has dozens of these active little lizards. Here's a male on a downed palm trunk showing off his dewlap.

This young fellow was sticking to ground cover plants. Brown anoles are often in trees, but they're also often on the ground. Where the native green anoles and brown anoles coexist, you often see the brown anoles on the ground and in the lower branches, and the green anoles in the higher branches.

Here's another young one. The youngsters often have reddish heads. Brown anoles vary quite a bit in their shade and dorsal pattern.

This one seems to have an identity crisis. I think it liked the specific name "radicalis".

I've started a collection of photos of brown anoles on signs. So far I have two.

What better way to spend Christmas than photographing brightly-colored lizards in the yard, I ask you?

This was an excellent brown-anole-photographing day. Not only did I catch one in the act of showing off its dewlap, but I doubled the size of my collection of pictures of brown anoles on signs.

Studly adult male brown anoles sometimes display their extreme macho qualities with a crest on the head and back, like this individual.

Here's a couple of Christmas anoles. The first one is a studly male with its pronounced crest; the second is a beautiful female with its red head.

My collection of photos of brown anoles on signs is now 25% larger.