Like whiptails, these lizards are hard to photograph because they're very skittish and they rarely stop moving.

Young western skinks and some related species have amazingly bright blue tails. The general consensus is that this attracts the attention of predators towards the disposable tail and away from the significantly less disposable head and body. But some herpetologists wonder whether making yourself so conspicuous can really be a good thing predation-wise, so perhaps there's another explanation for the color.

This skink has lost the last inch or so of its tail. It was slithering around in the leaf litter doing its skinky best to avoid having its picture taken. I caught it and calmed it down with gentle strokes before setting it on this log, where it remained for several minutes.

Just to the right of its back left foot you can see one coil of a slender salamander that's snuggled in a small hole in this log.

Here's another young tyke with a brilliant blue tail. This one was under a rock on a fairly chilly February day. If you look closely you can see that it has little beads of moisture on its body.

Yet another youngster with a tail of blue.

This one's a little older, and has developed some red under the chin while not yet completely losing the pretty blue tail.

This skink and one other (perhaps its mate) were hanging out on and near the trunk of a redwood tree near a clearing. For a usually skittish species, this was a remarkably calm individual, choosing to frequently pause in near-plain sight.

The fading blue tail indicates that this skink is transitioning into adulthood.