Although a night lizard, this island taxon may be active diurnally.
We were traveling to Santa Barbara Island in California’s Channel Island group specifically to see the large, mostly diurnal, Island night lizard, Xantusia riversiana reticulata. A dichotomy? Diurnal night lizard? Indeed it seemed so and we hoped that this taxon was as diurnal as we had been told.

We were aboard a comfortable catamaran belonging to Island Packers in Ventura, CA. On the trip out we saw more common dolphins than we had known existed, a blue whale, and many pelagic birds. About 3 hours after we had left we arrived, to be greeted by elephant seals, California sea lions, and a US Fish and Wildlife Service agent, the latter who explained the dos and the don’ts associated with our visit. Then up a steep incline, hoping to avoid the depredations of the common ravens that are so adept at ferreting out stored foods and trinkets, and then ambling slowly up the footpath in search of the lizard that had drawn us...

The Island night lizard was the last of the 8 US species in the genus that we needed to photograph for our western turtles and lizards field guide. And once we were on its home real estate of the 8” long (that’s HUGE for a night lizard, by the way) lizard we quickly learned that the word “night” in its name really was a misnomer. We were to see and photograph the stocky, brown reticulated grayish, omnivorous, lizards, basking and foraging on and around many of the rocks along the trail. Some, their lidless eyes all watching for ravens, were even scrounging for crumbs beneath the picnic tables.

If you are ever out that way, check out the Channel Islands. It is an experience you will long remember.