25 September β 19 November
the coastal calendar, unshifted
Sunlit stone walls and house facades; after dark, on the wall beside any outdoor light.
The stocky, warty gecko with a loud clicking call, and the one that owns the lit wall. Two clutches of two hard-shelled eggs a season, wedged into a crack and left; it is the most numerous reptile in most Dalmatian towns, and entirely harmless to everything but moths.
photos, sightings and recordings, off this site
where this species is on the list
| Phase | When | Length | What it means |
|---|---|---|---|
| wintering in cover | 20 November β 24 February | 97 days | Reptile dormancy β sluggish rather than truly asleep, and broken by warm spells. Barely dormant at all on the coast: a warm winter evening still brings it out onto the wall. |
| going about the year | 25 February β 31 March | 35 days | Feeding, holding territory, doing nothing the calendar singles out. |
| courting | 1 April β 30 April | 30 days | Song, display, fighting, scent-marking β pairs forming or reaffirming. |
| on eggs | 1 May β 4 August | 96 days | Clutch laid and being incubated, or buried and left to the sun. |
| raising young | 5 August β 24 September | 51 days | Dependent young in the nest, den or burrow, being fed. |
| young dispersing | 25 September β 19 November | 56 days | Young leaving for good, looking for a territory of their own. |