Reptiles Field Guide w/ lots of lizards indentified?

[Julie in GA]

We have lizards living around our house, and my children and I would love to be able to identify them more specifically. Is there a field guide that has a thorough section on lizards that you can recommend?

[Mallory]

The best field guides are usually local and are often small and written by a local professor or (in this case) herpetologist. If you live near a university the book store they might have what you need or a small bookstore. Large bookstores tend to have the big field guides and you don't want to have to search through 500 pictures to find the 10 species that live in your yard.

Or, here are some websites (I guessed for Georgia ;)).

http://www.uga.edu/srelherp/lizards/index.htm

http://www.southalley.com/

http://www.gwf.org/resources/georgiawildlife/reptileindex.html

http://timberrattlesnake89.tripod.com/lizardsandalligators.html

It looks like there are just a few different kinds that live in Georgia. Skinks, Glass Lizards, Anole, Race-Runners, Geckos, and Fence Lizards.

If you feel like keeping one for a week or two, I'd recomend a Fence Lizard. We had a skink and a fence lizard for most of last summer and the skink mostly just hid under a rock, but the Fence lizard had a great personality! We don't have geckos here, but I have heard they can be fun too. We also had an Anole (from a pet store) a few years ago, and the Fency still wins hands down!

[Julie in GA]

I'm pretty sure that one of "ours" is an Anole. There are several that live right around our house, so we don't need to buy any or officially "keep" any, because we know where their little holes and favorite sunning places are. Lots of fun! Thank you very much for the links.