Skinkin' Cool!

On several occasions,  I have seen this weird looking lizard/salamander/snake type thing dart in and around our front step.  New to Virginia, I didn't think we had lizards, so I was guessing it was a salamander, but it didn't look wettish and it moved like a snake.  I also saw a tiny one with a blue tail! I finally looked it up and discovered it was a skink- a kind of lizard.  The young skinks lose their tails when they get older, and the bright blue color is to distract predators. Cool, huh? I wish I could get a photo of one, but they move super fast. This photo I found from the Internet. When the blue tailed skink gets older and loses it's blue tail, it's called a five-lined skink.