Fireworks & Five Lined Skink

A follow-up to a previous post on Fourth of July festivities here is two photos that my wife took while attending the fireworks show in Horton, Kansas. A pretty good show for a 'small town' that has a great view along Mission Lake.

The basement in the house is partially finished with a guest bedroom, bathroom, and kitchenette alongside a family room area. Since we've moved in it has essentially been a play room for the boys to have their train tracks and toys strung about. Well today my wife was down there cleaning and while sweeping underneath a work table this came out alongside the dust:

It's a Five Lined Skink that at some point got into the basment and passed away. Neat little creatures that as juveniles or females have bright blue lines on their tails. Kansas is on the far western edge of their geographical distribution as shown below via Wikipedia. After today's discovery I saw another skink, a juvenile or female, this evening while mowing as it had the bright blue lines on the tail.