Wildlife in the Garden: From my bathroom window

Mr. Ali-Baba visible from my bathroom window, is quite a good subject for Jude’s ‘Wildlife in the Garden’ challenge. My neighbour Larry was rather startled when I told him that he often has an alligator sunbathing on his patch, as he and his wife also like to sun themselves in their backyard, but a bit closer to the house.

Last night in the club bar, I was pleased to hear from one of my old neighbours that Mr. A has so far managed to evade the clutches of the trappers. I was so proud when he told me that the wily Mr. A was clever enough to grab the bait and dash away with it. So it seems that my scaly friend is quite invincible and can beat those trappers at their own game. Three cheers for Mr. A!!

Happy Thursday to you all. 🙂

 

 

My Wild Thursday Friends

Today as I stood outside looking in vain for Iggy who seems to have gone all camera-shy, Daisy and Danny duck came floating on by.

Dainty Ms. Limpkin was again searching for tasty morsels in our backyard.

This delightful little fella, part of  a merry band of six Green Anole lizards in the front garden, stopped cavorting just for a split second so I could get a photo. I think I’ll call him ‘Peater’ because he looks a bit like a pea-pod with legs.

High up in our outside lanai, I spotted a Zebra Longwing butterfly. I thought a good title for this photo would be ‘Beauty and the Beam’.

I still have no definite news about the fate of Mr. A, as of course to my previous neighbours one alligator looks very like another, so there seems to be some confusion as to which three were captured. I’m still hoping for the best for him. Meanwhile my new friend Ali-Baba seems to like sunbathing at the water’s edge just opposite to our new house, so I’m not exactly ‘gator-less.

Think I’ll now go and sweep up some sawdust before lunch. Story of my life at the moment; hubby makes a mess and I go clean it up. The house is coming on though, and he’s doing a really great job. 🙂 Hope your Thursday is also going well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Home, New Neighbours

Today I finally had a few moments to take my camera and venture through the construction site which will one day be my living area,

to see what new neighbours I could find.

At first glance, there didn’t seem to be much going on out back. It just looked like a calm and peaceful scene.

A closer inspection through my lens however, revealed  many inhabitants of those pine trees. How many Pelicans can you spot?

One lazy Peli looked to be sleeping rather late today.

Away to the left, cute Mr. Iggy was on lookout duty in his bright orange waistcoat.

The dainty Miss Limpkin was busy examining the smorgasbord along the water’s edge. I read that Limpkins are particularly partial to apple snails, as well as insects and tadpoles. I hope she found something to her liking.

A couple of days ago, hubby spotted an alligator chatting to a tricolored heron across the water.  If he’s going to be a regular visitor, I guess he’ll have to have a name. I think I’ll called him Mr. AB (for Ali Baba), as there could never be another Mr. A in my life. He will always hold a special place in my heart, and if my friend was correct when I spoke to her at dinner last night, it sounds like he was caught by the trappers shortly after our move. That makes me very sad to think of him having his freedom taken away, and being driven away in the back of a truck with his mouth duct-taped shut.

On that sad note, I’ll wish you all a very happy weekend. My blogging should be back to normal next week.

P.S. Can someone please tell me how I switch my blog buddies’ e-mail notifications on again? I had to switch them off during the move, so I didn’t end up with hundreds of e-mails, but can’t for the life of me find the place to re-tick to reverse it. (Sometimes it’s really such a pain being blonde.)

 

Mr. A sings “All By Myself.”

“All by myself
Don’t want to be all by myself anymore
All by myself
Don’t want to live all by myself anymore.” ~ Eric Carmen

Some individuals are destined to live a lonely life, and it seems that Mr. A falls into this category. Just yesterday he spotted two friendly looking Common Gallinules standing chatting on the grassy bank. He swam up alongside, thinking he could perhaps join in the lakeside gossip. “Uh-oh!” said the one Gallinule to his friend, “I think we’d better continue this conversation elsewhere.”

Miss Anhinga also wasn’t any too keen to engage Mr. A in small-talk, and took off in a great hurry, as he hauled himself out of the water.

“Well that was a great deal of effort for nothing,” mumbled Mr. A through his sizable teeth. “Some folk can be downright unfriendly. I’m never going to get to know the neighbours at this rate. Ah well, I may as well just rest here for a while in the sun, while I get my breath back.”

Two hours later he was still there, snoozing away, dreaming of becoming the most popular ‘Badass’ on the lake. Being an alligator is such a lonely life, and it seems that nobody wants to be his friend. All together, say “Aah, but he’s such a sweet guy!” Just look at that smile.

As I type this, he’s stretched out there again, just wishing and hoping for some friends to come play with him.

Have a great Monday. 🙂

 

Mundane Monday: In My Backyard

Jithin at Photrablogger’s ‘Mundane Monday Challenge‘ is to find “beauty in everyday mundane things, capture the beauty and upload the photographs.” Maybe my everyday mundane things aren’t quite the same as yours, and I suppose when it comes to alligators, beauty is definitely in the eye of the beholder. Yesterday, Mr. A got brave and decided to climb out of the water and do a bit of sunbathing on the neighbour’s grass. He started out with his eyes open, on the alert to see if he’d been noticed by anyone. He seemed to be looking straight at me, probably sizing me up for breakfast. I think he fancies me!

After a while, he relaxed and snoozed a few hours away in the sunshine, until a sudden heavy downpour of rain woke him up.

He then slithered back into the water and had a little cruise around before returning to his lair, which I think must be somewhere along the edge of the golf course. I wouldn’t imagine that golfers here go fishing around in the water for lost golf balls.

Here’s a cute joke to make you smile this Monday morning. “Who gives alligators their Christmas presents? ……………”Santa Jaws!” 🙂

Have a great week everyone.

 

 

My Sunday Photo: Rainbow’s End

It’s always such a joy to see a rainbow, and this time, the end of it seemed to be quite close. in fact just the other side of the lake dividing us from our neighbours. That pot of gold had probably never been closer, but with Mr. A lurking somewhere in there, I thought it wisest not to swim over to look for it.

Meet the new neighbours

Over at the ‘new’ house that hubby is working on, we have a family of iguanas in our backyard. They are really rather large, and I hope they stay outside and don’t decide to pay neighbourly visits like the little lizzies have a habit of doing. Yesterday I found an 8 inch lizard in the bath tub, which wasn’t ideal, but I would totally freak out if I found one of these dragony creatures in the shower with me. I was reading that they can grow to 5 or 6 feet!

I took these photos through the window so as not to disturb them. This is Iggy who must be the big daddy.

Igua is the mommy, and she’s only slightly smaller.

There are at least three younger ones, who were hidden in the long grass. I was wondering if these creatures are harmful to gardens, and read that besides eating weeds, insects and smaller reptiles, they also like to feed on such plants as orchids, bougainvillea and other garden shrubs, which won’t make me very happy at all. They can also deliver a very nasty bite if one gets too close. I think Mr. A could be a much more preferable neighbour as at least he mostly stays in the water.

Do you have any interesting ‘backyardigan’ critters?

Going on a short trip

Today we leave for a few days in Key West, where we’ll be meeting up with our son and family. I’m so looking forward to seeing them all again. Whilst we’re away, I’ve asked Mr. A to keep an eye on our place. He’s agreed to glide by a couple of times a day, but when I remarked on how much he seems to have grown lately, and asked him if he’d seen any ducklings around, he totally avoided the question.

I did see the darling little baby out for a swim with his mom yesterday. She kept him very close.

I guess that as any good mom would be, she was very alert to any danger which might be lurking.

This sweet little neighbour has become a regular visitor to my bit of garden out back. He’s usually too quick for me to get a shot as he scurries across the patio on his way to the palm trees, but today he paused for a couple of moments. It seems quite the thing at the moment to name wild animals, so I’ve called him Cyril.

He likes to eat upside down, which surely can’t be good for the digestion.

He didn’t seem overly worried when I pointed this out to him.

He just carried on eating and then raced off to report for lookout duty.

Mr. GBH was far too busy scouting for fish when I went to tell him that I and my camera wouldn’t be around for a few days.

The Great Egret hardly missed a beat as he high-stepped it along the water’s edge.

I’m sorry to say that I won’t be taking any of you along with me, but I’ll be back at the weekend, so you’ll hardly have time to miss me. Have a great rest of the week. See you again soon.

My Sunday Photo: Mr. A still on patrol

We arrived home late last night, jet-lagged and travel-weary, but after a good night’s sleep in my own comfortable bed, I’m feeling quite rejuvenated. This morning, I was delighted to see that Mr. A had not deserted his post. He was faithfully patrolling the ‘moat’ in my backyard, just as I’d asked him to do when we left here six weeks ago.

 

A stealthy visitor to my backyard

I’d been wondering why there was a noticeable lack of bird life around the lake today. Late this afternoon when Mr. A came cruising past my back yard, the mystery was solved.

Unfortunately he wouldn’t come close enough for a decent photo, and headed off towards the other side. One lone cormorant flew down to the water quite close to where Mr A was lurking.  After splashing around for a minute or so, he suddenly took off like a bat out of Hell,  and who could blame him?