I've written before about the abundance of wildlife here in Florida and still I keep finding new bugs, birds, and reptiles that keep the whole family in awe.
In March, we found a couple of majestic birds perched on our big oak tree in the backyard. I had to take a picture through our screened porch so this photo is a bit blurred.
Based on my tiny research, this might be a broad-winged hawk! And looking at how fuzzy some of his feathers are, this one might have been born just a few months ago! He just sat there for a good 10 minutes looking at what must have been things scurrying to and fro on the grass and on the street below. He might have been there longer, but I disturbed it when I opened our patio door. But I had to! I had seen it move its leg into this position below and thought it had broken his limb. And when I mean I had to (open the door) I mean that I had to see if it was too lame to fly and if I would have to call some sort of animal rescue.
But no ... he was fine and was probably just stretching. The moment I opened my door, he flew away. I was relieved that he was in good shape, but sad that I may never see him again.
That same patio door, when first opened, will create a lot of commotion whether or not there are migrating predatory birds out there or not. The lizards love to sunbathe on our backyard steps to which the door leads. In the middle of Winter, we saw a different types of lizards that had more prominent wings, crests, and dark hues. Winter in Florida must be tough for the reptilians because we saw evidence of battles!
This slithering creature lived to fight another day because he let his tail go. Good for him that he could grow another. When we first got to Tampa, the only lizards we saw were skinny, light-brown ones as skinny as my pinky finger. This darker brown one is fatter and less afraid of humans. He likes to wait until the last minute before he scampers away. That picture above is enough proof that he's not phased by homo sapiens. I was less than a foot away from him with my big camera lens in his face!
Near the Everglades we came across a feral caterpillar that I've only before seen in pictures and behind glass cages.
I later found out that this is an Echo Moth caterpillar. It probably now looks like this:
I saw one bug on my tomatoes a while bag and thought nothing of him/her because it did not appear to be eating the leaves. Even its babies were not seemingly doing anything harmful. Little did I know that they like to suck the juice of the tomatoes!
I found out these are S T I N K B U G S ! Ugh! But I didn't get off my lazy ass to find this out until they had already multiplied into this mini-infestation!
Needless to say I killed them all and was left as stinky as I already am.
These are only a few of the creatures we've found. Max and I one day saw a caterpillar spinning into its chrysalis or its cocoon. Actually I didn't just see it from afar - I almost ran smack into it with my face. Yesterday, we saw a slug that mimicked the leaf foliage. Two nights before I found a baby bird sitting on the envelopes our mailman had left on our front porch. How do I know it was a baby bird? When I tried to hold him to put him closer to some bird seed I had, he hopped away and couldn't flap his wings. I tried to put him in a safe place from where his mommy could retrieve him, but his squawks attracted two cats that were faster, stronger, and a lot closer than the mama bird. Such is life. And boy does Florida have a lot of it here.
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