Tag: Florida life

Photo of the Month of January 2017

I cannot take credit for this photo, but I can say that this is the little  creature that I found hanging off the underside of a leaf on my jatropha. I didn’t have a camera when I discovered this jewel. I could not take photos and kill it fast enough after it stung me.

​I do admit that the photo for this post was the first thing that popped into my mind. However, once the poison started screaming through my finger, all good thoughts were off. All those cute fuzzy hairs are poison tipped darts that have to be removed by using a sticky piece of tape and then wrapping the wound in baking soda paste. The saddleback caterpillar had to die after that.  Hopefully, it was a painful death.

Photo of the Month of December 2016

Will you be filling the feeder with squirrels anytime soon?

Our red shouldered hawk found a great place to park himself when he waited to see if any of the squirrels would be nosing around the bottom of the feeder. He is an opportunist if nothing else. He spent the morning watching all of the oak trees for squirrel activity. Funny thing is, not a single squirrel was to be found!

Photo of the Month of November 2016

Winter is here! The big woodpeckers have returned to demolish some of our more insect ridden tree branches. This is a pileated woodpecker, and we have a pair of them that come visit every year. She is in this photo, but hidden around one of the stalks of bamboo. They are large and love our rotten jacaranda tree. 

They have a very distinct and very loud call that echoes through the  yard and we all know when they have returned to roost. 

Photo of the Month of October 2016

I took a day off and went to McKee Gardens, which is a tropical jungle and botanical garden  park with footpaths weaving throughout a lot of ponds and vegetation. They are particularly known for their amazing amount of lilypad species.

They also have an abundance of orchids and other tropical flowers that we typically find growing in Florida. At one time in their history (like 60 years or so), they were filled with parrots and wild monkeys that were still around in the 1980s. It is a fragile garden that is subject to storms and other things that are always threatening it.

Photo of the Month of September 2016

These are called beautyberries and are native to South America, but they grow wild all over our yard where  we have left some of the natural vegetation grow. They are quite edible and make a great jelly according to prominent gardening sites.

They are a favored treat of the mockingbird, but I have yet to see one come down and snatch the berries away. I usually just see them rot on the vine. We also have tons of Muscadine grapes that will overtake the yard if you let them. They also just stay on the vine.

I thought this gradient of ripening beautyberries were pretty cool, so I took the shot.

Photo of the Month of August 2016

I had a little bit of birthday money to spend this summer, and this plumeria is the one thing that I could think of that I have always wanted to plant in my yard. The nursery that I get a lot of my plants from had about a dozem of these plants in a large assortment of colors. I finally decided on the more traditional yellow and white. I did find out that when it produces seeds, the new plants are not necessarily the same as the old plants. I am looking forward growing some plumerias of a range of colors next spring.

Photo of the Month of July 2016

Normally, there is a blizzard of activity in the yard as squirrels scurry about pestering the cardinals at the bird feeder and digging in my plants. One afternoon, the movement all stopped and one little squirrel suddenly froze on the side of the oak tree.

So, I went to see what was going on. 
Here is what was going on. Apparently, this guy stopped in for a break and terrified the squirrels. He sat in the tree for about a half an hour, and that frozen squirrel never moved the whole time. 

Photo of the Month of June 2016

Just when I thought I had seen all the birds I was going to see, I happened to look up from my desk and watch a  female turkey wander past the front of the house. So, I snatched up my camera and went out to take her photo. She was freakishly fast, and I ended up almost chasing her down the lane. I have a lot of  photos like this that may make a great little animated short. I don’t know where she came from, but I know she was hightailing it out of my yard!

Photo of the Month of May 2016

This is a juvie ibis poking around in the yard.  He decided to help me plant flowers by poking holes in the yard. He spent a few days at my house ridding my yard of whatever it was that he was eating. Every now and then, the rest of his family would join him, and I would have a yard full of ibis wandering around. Eventually, they got tired of my yard and left. 

Photo of the Month April 2016

This guy was so much bigger than he appears. He settled in on a limb of my lemon tree and gave me the opportunity to take his photo a number of times.  Check out the crazy pattern on his back. It almost looks like a face.

I am glad that he has decided to rid my yard of mosquitoes since they seem to think that I am lunch. There are some days when the yard is just filled with them flitting about, and all I can think about is that there must be a whole lot of mosquitoes that I cannot see.