Dragonflies and Disney Princes after a South Florida Workout

There are certain things that I allow to end a workout early.

Rain, but it has to be substantial.  If I see that The Park that I workout in is under a green blob on Radar, I won't leave to get there.  If it is a big storm it is a no-go, little pop up showers are worth a chance.

High winds.  Today we had that, winds gusting to 25 MPH/40 KPH.  That picked up the sand from the beach and blew it west, inland.  It created a sandblasting effect that would wear you down.

High Heat.  I'm in South Florida, working out at Pompano Airpark.  26.247 degrees North, 80.111 degrees West.  I am used to heat.  If it drops below 80F/26C I feel "cool".  I only run the air conditioning to 76F/24C here, but it is on as a default for about 11 1/2 months in the year.

It went from Warm to Hot in an hour today.  That coupled with a rain shower and moderate to high winds, it made the last lap an uncomfortable trip.  It was a full workout of 28.19 miles.  45.36 km.

But I was wiped out and welcomed that second bottle of ice water at the Jeep.

Going home was more rain.

The rain does bring benefits.  This being The Tropics, or Tropics Adjacent depending on what your definition is, we get lots of bugs.  Rain brings Mosquitoes, and sometimes Termite swarms.  It also brings, a day after that, Dragonflies to eat the Mosquitoes and Termites.  It also feeds the little lizards and anoles that you see stuck to walls near a light.

 If you have a rain, you want to turn off the outdoor lighting for the next day or so to let the Termites find a different home.  In Florida there are two kinds of people, those that have Termites, and those who will have Termites.

I was fortunate.  Rack, the McNab SuperDog (TM) has a habit of dragging me out to the backyard about every 90 minutes during the day.  I made my lunch, then nodded off after the morning workout.  He was due to go out.  I needed to shake the drowsy off.  Waking up at 330 AM is going to pretty much require that you have an afternoon nod off, and I have been getting up early to get in an early morning workout for decades.  

I let the old boy wander the yard and look for anything he could find.  While he did that, I looked over the Bougainvillea and spotted a Dragonfly.  It was seemingly asking to have its picture taken and now I can see why people have jewelry made to look like them.  Black and yellow iridescent body with translucent wings perched on a branch in front of a flower.

It stayed there long enough to get the pictures, and for Rack to put a wet nose on my knee.  

It was time to go back inside.  It is also time to put away the black and dark shirts for the summer.  You would be surprised how fast a faded black-to-charcoal t-shirt turns to uncomfortably hot.

I have joked that my yard turns me into a Disney Prince.  I have all sorts of wildlife that visit.  My milkweed that was growing in a semi-sheltered place now had 3 monarch caterpillars on it.  Luckily I have the seeds from a prior bloom and am scattering them all over the neighborhood.

Passing the future monarchs, I went inside.  It was warm, peak of the day.  But it is just the month of May so it will get hotter.  

Hydrate when you go outside.  I know I do.  And use sunblock.  Frequently.

A Rooster I Call Colonel Sanders

For a while I was going to Key West, FL.  A great place to walk around, see what is happening.  A Drinking Town with a Fishing Problem I once saw on a T Shirt there. 

It has been turning into a tourist trap to catch a few dollars from the cruise ships that dock there for the afternoon.  That truly does not interest me.

I was amused that, while walking around through Old Town, there were chickens nesting in the shrubbery.  

We did not have such a thing where I had come from, either in Cherry Hill, NJ, or Philadelphia, PA.  It doesn't mean that some had not escaped, I just never saw evidence of them.

Your standard issue chickens.  Laying standard issue hen's eggs.  Doing what Chickens would do I suppose, scratching around in the dirt, crossing the road, looking for food, making way too much noise way too early.

This is why I was so surprised that we had a rooster turn up here in Wilton Manors.  We have ducks.  Way too many of the beasts.  They are supposed to be "Water Fowl" and what they do is "Sidewalk Foul".  I see the evidence of ducks everywhere I go here.

The Rooster on the other side of the coin, well, he's the lead bird.  He had just shown up and decided to keep home on one specific corner.  He does tolerate the ducks here but he chases them around the neighborhood.  

There is one drawback to having roosters in the yard.  They're noisy.  It is why you don't see a lot of roosters.  They don't allow you to sleep.  It isn't that they call at dawn, or only at dawn.  They call for a couple hours before dawn.  

Mind you, I am up about 2 hours before dawn on most mornings, so I hear him, from at least two blocks away.  At 5AM.

I walk out into the backyard with my headphones on.  Turning on the internet radio, tuning into the news program on CBC or BBC, I will hear him calling out from about a quarter mile away.

He's alone.  Maybe that is why he is constantly calling out at predawn 5AM, trying to find a hen to spend some time with.  But he is loud, and his call floats on the breezes.

There is another rooster about a half mile in the other direction from me.  That one calls frequently from the other side of the tracks.  I can hear him if it is quiet and the winds are just right.

Then again, it could just be that he relocated to where this one is.  Or maybe, he Was Relocated by someone.  I don't know.  As long as I don't have to hear him inside the house.

As I walk Rack the McNab SuperDog (TM) on his first 2 mile walk of the day.  I see the rooster and he's going to try to avoid us.  You see, I do know why the chicken crosses the road.  It is to avoid my dog.

But as we pass, he relaxes and once out of sight, you hear that call we all know.  Yes, it does sound just like that.  5:30AM wake up call, neighbors.

Good luck with that.  At least the dirty ducks are quiet, and the flocks of feral parrots don't get loud until the sun is up.

Brown Anole on a Fence

 These little anoles are just about everywhere here in South Florida.

Shortly after I moved here, one jumped on my foot, then ran up into my shorts.  Luckily my backyard, where it happened, was secluded enough that I could extract it and not offend anyone.

Not even the little anole who skittered off into the bougainvillea.

I was surprised to find out that they are also invasive and not from here.  Since they tend to be unobtrusive and not really harmful, I have a live and let live attitude with them.

In the case of this little one, it seemed to really want its picture taken.  Basking on a fence post it had been living there all summer.  There is a lot of traffic on that particular spot so I suspect it has gotten used to the fuss of being on display.

In general, they do good by keeping the insect population down.  In fact I am sitting in my living room watching one eat a bug on the fence outside of my window right now.

When I described their antics to a friend Up North, she did not like that they were so common.  Not to worry, they don't bite.  In fact if they have teeth they aren't terribly sharp.

I have read stories of people keeping these in their apartments in big cities to keep the unwanted pest population down.

I will say that while I am gentle towards this type of animal and have a plastic cup I use to catch and release them outside, I neither have the insect population inside the house to keep them alive, nor the desire to find one in my rooms at strange hours.

Mind you, the black racer snake that got into the house caused a bit more fuss than the periodic visits of these anoles but that is a very different story indeed.

The snake seemed to take the hint and went back out of the back door when I opened it and went back to it's own life, whatever that might be.

Wildlife in Urban South Florida is More Common Than You Might Expect.

Living in South Florida, you live closer to wildlife than you do in many places.  I have explained this to many a good friend from more urban cities up North.

I regularly "shoo" ducks off the property.

There are foxes and coyotes in the area.  While I have never heard a 'yote howl, I have heard from the local notables, to expect them.

I have seen Raccoons and Opossums on my back porch.  The "Lanai" seems to be a highway for critters. 

Those two we leave alone.  They are beneficial even if they do soil the pool backsplash more often than I prefer.  One Opossum did not like me on the back porch one day.  I spoke to it in my best Steve Irwin impression "Go on, mate, you'll be right, go find your way!".  She did and I went on about my business turning on the irrigation.  After all, Opossums are beneficial and will eat the ticks if they find them.

We've got literal flocks of cherry headed amazon parrots here.  I heard they are native to Puerto Rico and are getting rare there.  But the green gems are here and I talk to them on the walks.

Speaking of flocks, there isn't a day I get to see a Monarch Butterfly.  It's because we refuse to spray the lawn for bugs, and I have planters with Milkweed all over the property.   Including the one on the front porch that I have a cage built over them.   I want the seeds.

Did Someone Loose A Rooster?  Because the neighborhood has been adopted by one, magnificent in black with a red comb.  You know he's there because he is calling frequently before dawn looking for company. 

On my last trip down before we moved here, I took Lettie to a park in Dania Beach.  Great ice cream nearby, if you are coming down keep that in mind.  Also keep this in mind, there are alligators here.  I understand they can be mostly anywhere in the state, and this particular one took an interest in Lettie.

We left.  Immediately.  She survived a number of years longer.  We did look for the monkeys that are supposed to be in the trees there but they didn't want to tangle with the dog or the big ape descendant walking her.

I spotted two species of lizards in the yard just now, plus Green Iguanas.  Oh trust me, I would like to see a cold snap thin these herds.  Herds.  As in Jurassic Park herds of upwards of 5 foot long green beasts with an attitude running to be far from you.  I see them frequently at the park as I am riding past.  "Roaring" at them seems to move them along to bounce off the cyclone fence and into the interior where they can go about their iguana-tastic lives.   Away from me.  Off the trail with you!

Along with the flocks of birds that visit we've got tree frogs.  I'm happy that we don't have the Coqui that are native to Puerto Rico because they are quite loud.  The one I am thinking of is a tree frog that was not happy with me chasing it with a cell phone to get the picture.  It scampered from waist high to about 7 or 8 feet off the ground.

You don't see them during the day as they tend to dry out.  The temps here are not as hot as the big cities up North, but this being Tropics-adjacent, bring your sunscreen.  The tree frogs will taking cover during the day.  Shade only, no direct sunlight.

All of this can be seen on the five or so mile walks that I take during a day.  Forgetting the humans and the domestic animals that come with us, this is quite a crowded little place. 

Congratulate me, It's A Boy And A Girl, And they're Orange and Black. More Monarchs Visit Me.

Ok, I'll admit it, good idea, poor execution.

The cage I slapped together did keep Momma Monarch away from my personal stash of Milkweed.  What it didn't do is keep Momma's little babies from wandering in and eating their fill.

What is this blather?

Lather, rinse, and repeat. 

In this case what I had done wrong was to leave some exposed Milkweed on my front porch.  I used up my supply of hardware cloth to build an ugly steel cage around my personal Milkweed. 

Caterpillars don't share.  Just ask any farmer.  The milkweed I left on the porch drew lots of Monarchs.  Beautiful critters, really.  That is why I plant and propagate the stuff, to help the butterflies. 

Very low effort hobby.  I can watch the little beauties fly in on the breeze from my easy chair in the front room of my house.  Momma floats on in, finds the exposed Milkweed, drops an egg on a leaf, and moves on to the next plant.

In reality she drops a couple eggs and lets Darwin take charge.  You hatch first, you get the tasty leaves.  You hatch last, you get eaten by a brother or sister who eats the plant you are stuck under.

It has worked for millennia this way.  I can't change them. 

You see the issue.  My personal stash within the milkweed cage was adjacent to the exposed plants.  The caterpillars hatched, ate those plants, then moved on to mine.

Only two caterpillars got in the cage, and ate about half of my milkweed.  Greedy little beauties.

They left their jade colored chrysalis behind.  One was inside the cage, the female.  The male came back out of the cage and wandered up the leg of a plastic chair on my porch.

Both did hatch from the pupa.  Both fledged and flew away. 

My neighborhood in the land named after flowers has lots of butterfly friendly flowers.  Who knows, maybe my butterfly's children generations removed may come back and grace my yard.

Hopefully I will get my seeds that I was looking for in the first place.  You know, so I can grow some more milkweed?

Greedy little beauties that you are.

Just leave me a little, Huh?

Apparently, My Jeep Has Crabs.

I keep repeating this: Here in South Florida you live closer to wildlife than in the Northeast.

In Pennsylvania you have a greater chance of getting hit by a Deer.  They're all over the place.  I once was on a trail in Valley Forge and was joined by a Deer who trotted alongside me.  I know of someone whose car was rammed by one.

In New Jersey, guard your food at the Jersey Shore.  If not a Sea Gull will swoop in and attack it.

In New York City there are Coyotes in Central Park.

However here, in South Florida, my Jeep has Crabs.

And truth be told, all of the above are in South Florida.  Including Fox, Ball Python, Parrots, Ducks, Chickens, and more.  I've seen each of them.  I have been told to shut up by a Cherry Headed Amazon parrot before.

I told someone just yesterday when he was amazed at the crows here to "Make friends with them, they bring you gifts".

Apparently my house though has a crab living on the property.  I step outside the door to inspect my Jeep.  I do that frequently because the car is 22 years old and it likes that.  I look for any wildlife on my porch and spot the little critter.  Kind of pretty.  Looks like something you might see on a Maryland license plate.

This one has a blue stripe across it's body.  Carapace. 

And it did not like me being there so it ran off.  Under my Jeep. 

I did leave it alone, I do that.  After all, a Crab will eat up the nasties here like the Termites that were swarming a couple weeks back, and other things that may show up when you have a lot of nature nearby.

Luckily nothing too threatening here although I have run into a cougar or two.  She wanted to buy me a drink.  Thanks, I'm good.

How to Humanely Catch a Lizard or Spider - Or Not Now, I'm Too Busy For This

I have had a very packed morning.  Full of appointments, visits, and dog walks.

By the time I got back I was thinking that it's not going to be an easy one and I just needed to get on my way.

So why does this sort of thing happen just before it's time to leave?

Nature is having way too much fun today.  I ended up with a wee little lizard in the house.

These little things are about as long as your finger, and this one was no exception.  It also was one of the night time lizards which meant it shouldn't be stuck to the inside of my screen on the window. 

By stuck, I mean with wee little Gecko feet, but you get the idea.  No glue was involved.

I keep a couple of these cylinders around.  They get swapped out for new when I can find one.  In this case it is a repurposing of a mailer that my light blue cycle jersey came packaged in.

Gently open the window by sliding it to the left.  Shield the critter with the stripe of the window frame so it is less stressed out.  Cover the lizard with the cylinder - really any large glass would work but these plastic packing "waste" cylinders are much lighter.  Then slide a piece of a junk mailer under the lizard.  Close the window, walk the creature outside.

Except it liked being with me and jumped onto my hand instead of the Croton growing in the garden.  

A quick shake and it's gone back to it's lizardy life where lots of tasty insects live.

Bye little Lizard, we hardly knew ye.

Pushups With The Lizard

 

Someone doesn't want me outside today.

It's one of those days.  I was awake in time, but the conditions were wrong.  Since it is the Wet Season here in "Sunny" Florida, I can't complain...

Or can I?

We are coming up to peak wet season and due to La Niña it's been dry.  Or is it Él Niño?  ¡No puedo decir!

I've been active, according to most people's definitions.  I'm in extremely active person, and "it keeps me honest" is a good description of all of that. 

I walk more than four miles a day.  Skate two half-marathons per week.  Bike more than two hours a week.  If I don't maintain a PAI score of 300 I get a bit bored.  All in this heat.

All this is to say "On Yer Left".  "Lead, Follow, Or Get Out Of The Way."

Rhetoric aside, if I am kept indoors, I start looking for things to do.  It may not be the most pressing "thing" but I'll churn through those tasks.

Tasks like looking at the pictures I take with my feet up on the coffee table.

I had taken this picture simply because I was entertained by this little invasive Curly Tail lizard.  It watched me.  After each half hour in summer workouts, I push water.  My distance in sports, whether eight wheels or two, are limited by how much water I can carry.  I tend to stop at the same place in each workout.

Although on Skates, I use the front bumper of the Jeep to take a water stop.

In this case, I stop in a small parking lot in front of a small bar.  There's a tree there with a truck tire stack.  Old tires are used to stop people who may be turning around from knocking over the bar's sign and it seems to be working since the sign has been in place since I was a snowbird.

But like anywhere, if you have a place for a creature to hide, it's going to use it.  In the case of the tires, these Curly Tails have taken it over.

And since there's a tree in the parking lot, I have taken the spot over.  Only for a minute or four since I don't want to let my heart rate drop quite so far.

I was reminded of all of this because it's been a wet day here.  Every time I think that the rain has stopped, another leopard spot slinks over head and dumps buckets of water over everything.  I laugh, shrug, and consider what else can I do with the time.

Already made some corn muffins, I'm about to go into the kitchen and make some Coffee Brittle from a recipe I have kept on the blog over the last 14 years or so.

May as well do some cooking since there's another gully washer approaching.

But tomorrow is another day, and I'll be up at 5 AM to try to shoe horn in another workout.  You see, since it is Florida, doing an endurance workout really needs to happen before Noon.  And since the hottest week of the year is happening in the second week of August, you just have to keep plodding along.

Bring a pint of water for each half hour.  The Wildlife may not get any but you will appreciate the water stop.

That Isn't An Astronaut Up There When You Are Putting Up Holiday Lights, It's A Monarch

I'm a big guy, tall and fit.  In fact I am just back from a workout around town making a spectacle of myself in red, black, and safety orange spandex.

Yeah, let that stew in your mind for a bit.  A wall of Moose approaching at up to 17 MPH and over 7 feet tall on a bike in the Bus Lane.

But while I am very active, I also plan things out.  

The tradition in town for the holidays is to put lights on the house so you can be just about like the neighbors.  We don't have anyone here trying to be insanely bright on this block, most of us have something tracing out the lines of the house and call it done.  

I'm sure that the whole lighting thing will fade as carbon correctness gets more ingrained with people, at least it isn't long strings of 9 watt incandescent bulbs making way more heat than light.  It's now LEDs.

That is if you have them.

The conversation was: 

"What do you want to do about lights?"
"I don't really have time, I'm trying to get ready for the trip."

Yours truly has been researching high end inline skating parts online for a while and I found a truly insane set of lights for a minimal fee, and used my workout sponsorship money to get it.  Well, ours, but who is counting.

It got here, all 403 feet and 100 lights that were semi-addressable, and had ten "shows" and ... but it has to get on the house.

"I Don't Have Time"
"Where are the tools, I'm putting these up"

Hmmmm, 122 and a bit meters?  The Chinese must be using Imperial for this not a round number amount.

Anyway!

I got started and realized that I needed a ladder.  My reach was not quite far enough for all of the hooks I had to put in the house.  When I need a ladder, lesser men might need a crane.

Yeah, I know, stop patting yourself on the back big dude, others can do it and not need anything more than a "Six Foot Step Ladder" too!  That's 2 Meters give or take a few CM.  Help every last one of my 193 CM see over the roof and ...

I climbed up there and immediately got sun-blinded for a second and began muscling these strange stainless steel hooks into the soffits on the house when I was distracted.  I was about 10 feet (3m) in the air and I felt something trying to land in my ear.  Yes, in public someone was tickling my ear.  I expected to have the MTV Astronaut floating around me, not what I saw.

It was a Monarch Butterfly and I started doing some math.  They were back to lay eggs on the one milkweed plant that I have here that somehow manages to be in plain sight but ignored by the little queens looking to start the next generation.

Monarch Butterfly "Queens" have no spot on the wings where the "Kings" have a spot.  Yes the spot would be a dangly bit on a bull, and no I do not care if King and Queen are inappropriate, I rather like the words in this case.


There I was like a "Disney Prince" on a ladder about 3 yards/meters off the ground, trying not to fall on my Jeep Wrangler or the Orange tree.  I didn't want to break a leg, that would be a career ender and I am only 1900 miles from being able to say I skated around the world in career distance since 1993.

I got off the ladder, the Queen flew off my shoulder and went back to find my lone milkweed.  I watched as she laid one or more eggs and flew off to another piece of the plant.

"You are going to eat yourself out of house and home with your kids you silly bug!"

The plant already had a couple caterpillars on it in various sizes and was looking Moth Eaten.  Monarch Eaten to be more accurate.

Never mind that.  As I went to the next portion of the roof, I screwed in some more hooks and watched her and others.  It's been a dry day, the winds are light, and they kept flapping around me and the lone plant.  There had to be a good five or ten of them coming and going and looking like an approach pattern for an airport.

Eventually I got all the hooks in, then started threading LED wires through the hooks.  The same time it was Caterpillars Crunching, Monarch Moms Multiplying, Monarch Dads Drinking.  I had another one land on my free hand, just like the "Disney Prince" I was that day.

All in all I decided that 80% of 403 feet and only 80 LEDs of Holiday brightness would be sufficient.  It all looked reasonably nice on the house, not too showy, kind of subtle.

I could just be belaboring a point.  Read into it what you like.  I enjoy my weirdly random in phases lights coming and going.

I did read someone near here came around a corner once and spotted someone's display of red and blue lights and thought it was a Police Car.  She nearly wrecked her car by running off road towards a Gumbo Limbo.  Instead of looking at them and reading too much into it, remember, Speed Kills and Drive Alert, Stay Unhurt.

Enjoy your holiday, which ever one you choose to celebrate.  We'll leave a hundred lights on for you.  Now do let me go and nibble on some carbs.  I'm hungry and I am post-workout crashing.

A Five AM Dragonfly Visitor Shows Gold

 Getting up before dawn, ok, lets call it two hours before dawn, can have benefits.

In this case I was surprised by a visitor.

Our home remodeling project is creaking to a close.  We've finally been able to re-camp in our house after being out of it for four months.  

I really don't ever want to do that again.  I am planning on never leaving so we've completely redone the floors, bathroom, and the kitchen.  

It. Was. Dentistry. Without. Novacaine.

Enough naval gazing and moaning.

It was the first morning I woke up in my own bed.  I also realized that I had to look into what Oscar the Parrot was doing across the street.  He needed food and a little attention I am sure.

So I gathered up Rack The McNab SuperDog (TM) and padded out into the morning dark.  It's been beautiful lately and I truly believe that the hurricane season will have left us unscathed.  We seem to be falling into a lull and the water temperature of the Gulf Stream off Miami is 82F/27.9C.  Once it falls below 26C/78.8, hurricanes can not form.

We have a little bit to go yet.

All this was going through my mind as the breezes off the nearby ocean were caressing my skin that predawn when I rounded the corner past my Jeep.

When I reached for the latch on the gate, I spotted a jewel.   I had to just stop and stare.  The little jewel was a Dragonfly.  I've spoken about these insects before, they're beautiful and entertaining to watch when they're going about their business eating mosquitoes and allowing me to wear shorts outside.

I am that person.  When I am in a crowd you will be safe.  The mosquitoes will be dining on my blood, and not yours.

I noticed that this particular dragonfly was utterly beautiful.  Perched under a low voltage light on the wall, my eye caught the iridescence of its wings.  Shimmering in gold, against the brown background I had to stop and take it in.

So even at 5AM, there can be beauty to be found.

Owl Be Seeing You Later!

When I have a neighbor move in and start talking about things to watch out for here in South Florida, I usually tell them that "you live closer to wildlife here than in most places".

I'm in the tenth largest metropolis in Los Estados Unidenses.  It's 120 miles North to South, about 12-15 miles East to West.   Technically I'm on an island.  Actually a river splits to the West and this part of the city is bounded by water.  

So we live in a very lush tropical forest and that means that it's prime habitat for Wildlife.

In fact, it really never got settled until the advent of affordable air conditioning, and I will say I have used the AC every single month of the year.  It never freezes here.  34F was as cold as I have seen it since I moved here in 2006.  One Degree Celsius.

I could probably grow Durian fruit if I really wanted a challenge.  I know they grow Cacao and Durian at Fairchild Gardens just south of Miami's downtown.  I have a neighbor who grows a coffee tree and roasted enough beans for about a cup.  I should find out how it turned out!

I've seen on my own property many kinds of frogs, snakes, butterflies, and canines.  Many more species of introduced animals which I have waxed poetic about before.  If I shine a flashlight down a corridor at night, those eyes looking back at me could easily be a raccoon or a coyote.

I don't know why I was surprised when I was texted a picture of an Owl.  I have only seen one once before.  This makes my second.  It's welcome.  During the day, it's perch is used by Blue Jays, Orioles, and Parrots.  It should find plenty of small rodents and lizards to dine on.  

I really am surprised more that it allowed me to get close enough to take a series of four pictures with flash after someone had sent me his but here we are.

Cherry Headed Amazon Parrots in Florida? Yeah, we've got that too.

The day I went to see what would be my house for the last fifteen years, I had a visitor.

I looked through the house to the backyard to the Bougainvillea arbor.  I have managed to keep that alive, and trimmed and I still look at it as a bit of contemplative beauty.  Even with all the thorns, the flowers will draw the eye.

I did make it to the yard and get to see it first hand.  Walking past it to the back of the yard, I heard some unaccustomed chattering.  

I looked up and spotted a cherry headed amazon parrot.  I chattered back at it "Meh Meh Meh MEH!".   We held a conversation for a short while.  

It must have been a good omen.  I look at the wires when I am back there looking for the parrots and sometimes I spot one. 

Truth be told, the yard is chock full of wildlife, some of it belongs, much of it is carelessly introduced.

I've spotted more of the parrots, many other species of birds some of which are just passing through on their vacation here over winter.

I've seen Green Iguanas, way too destructive to be welcome, as large as six feet.  Dinosaurs really, eating away at the plants and shorting out the power lines with an electrical pop.

I've been told that there are Pythons and Boa Constrictors back there as well but I have not spotted them.  The Black Racer snakes are quite enough, thank you.

And I've seen these exotics on my many walks around town.  I've transitioned away from my normal inline skating workouts while the lab rats are filling up the ERs lately, so I am walking all over town.

This morning on the wires the flock had arrived.  Behind Hagen Park in Wilton Manors, there was a flock of Cherry Heads up there making a racket.  I have been told that this is a small flock and in other parts of Fort Lauderdale there are flocks that are five times or more individuals there.  I do know that this particular flock shuttles between the High School and the Park dining on choice fruits growing on the trees.

I guess you just never know what you will see if you look for it.  As for the Parrots, they're pretty common here.  If I don't hear them I am surprised.  You get to expect them while out with the dog in town.

Welcome to Florida, Our Stinkhorn Mushrooms Are Fruiting and Not A Dog Toy

 

When writing a blog, you get to see what you write that makes people interested in what you say.  One of the articles I wrote many years ago was a picture of a Black Racer Snake perched in my Bougainvillea in the backyard of my house.  It was thawing in the morning sun, and even if it had lunged at me, it would not have been fatal.  They are non venomous.

It's a big hit in India and surrounding nations.  I'm not sure why.  But the videos of Cobras being "Charmed" in the streets always gives me a bit of a pause for concern.

Here in South Florida, we have a weirdly diverse wildlife.  It's not strange enough that the river that surrounds the island on which I live occasionally gets alligators, and I believe sharks have been spotted.   People come down here and call the place weird because we have Ball Pythons, Boa Constrictors, Iguanas, Ducks, Monkeys, and Parrots.  Everything has relocated here as a result of being released from captivity, either intentionally or not.  

I'm sure that I am leaving a few out.  The stories of people "finding" lost dogs and cats that turn out to be abandoned in a remote area are many and unfortunate.

In this case, this is a dog toy looking thing that is a mushroom.  Don't let your dog play with it.  It's most likely poison.

The fruiting body comes up, pops open, and smells like rotting meat.  The smell attracts flies and the flies land on it.  Spores get on the flies and the plant will have a chance at having more of its kind in the area.  The next day, the "dog toy" shrivels up and looks like a deflated balloon.

The Circle Of Life continues in another place.

So if you are coming down here, please look but don't touch the weird wildlife.  It may have been from Cousin Jane from Toledo, Ohio but now it's feral and may bite.   That thing under the hedge is not a dog toy, it smells like a burger that has gone off.

Orchid and Tree Frog

Once upon a time, we had tree frogs that visited.

They parked on the car.

They watched from the window.

They were harmless and entertaining.

Lately, I got a visit once again.  This rather little critter spent some time out in my garden.

The frog is parked on top of a leaf on my Cattleya Orchid that is intertwined with the wood on my fence.   

 

I try hard not to disturb those particular plants.  An orchid tends to grow slowly.  They do put out some rather amazing flowers, and I have shared them in the past.  

This particular plant is actually one that I took from the mother plant.  It had grown along in its way, putting out rhizomes that sometimes would put out more leaves.  Periodically, you can harvest parts, and place them in some bark and allow them to grow into new plants.

Most of what I have here are from cuttings that I had propagated.  Orchids are strange plants, they take their nutrients from the plants that are near them.  Water running down the host bark will pick up what they need to live, and they will thrive if you have the right conditions.

I have the right conditions here, and this one is on a drip feed irrigation that is visible in the picture.

It also provides a rather nice bed for a little tree frog who decided to spend that particular night.

Between the Dragonflies and the Monarchs, I think not spraying the lawn for grubs really helps.

I guess it's the Law of Unintended Consequences.

This is when something unexpected happens due to your action or inaction.

The Law, is also one of the things that stuck in my mind from my Sociology courses in university all those years ago.   Fun thing, Sociology.  Half of the course is defining the term Cohesion, the rest of it was using the term in creative ways.

I don't believe in coating your lawn with chemicals unless you really do need it.  If you are having grubs that are killing off the grass and natural means are not controlling them, go for it, but only as much as is truly needed.

In our case, I think my neighbors' spraying pesticides are causing me to be an Island of Nature.  Or perhaps it is merely a nice thought.

I watch what goes on in the front yard very closely.

I chase the ducks off.  That time there was a duck "party" on my front porch that was so loud that through the hurricane glass, I could hear every single one of the seventeen of them that were cramming onto that one female duck at the bottom of the pile.  That was enough.  Chase the female, the males follow.  The eggs they are laying are giving me an opportunity to watch the foxes and perhaps coyotes that come through here at night.  They have a taste for duck eggs just like your "outdoor cats".

If you feed the ducks, you are really feeding the foxes and the coyotes.  The ones that amble about this neighborhood are an introduced species, and not native.  They also bring parasites that sicken your dogs.  There is no such thing as an outdoor pet in suburbia or the city.

Lately I have noticed that there are quite a few Dragonflies taking residence here and at the little M.E. dePalma park nearby.  They, and my treasured Monarch Butterflies shuttle back and forth with great regularity.  

Those grubs sometimes hatch into a mature Dragonfly.  Frequently, by my count.  They are drawing these nondescript birds that have been coming to keep the count of Dragonflies in check.  I'm fine with that, they are in balance with nature.

I'm also noticing that these same birds are not on any of my neighbor's yards.  For the same reasons.  They spray, we don't.

A Green Lawn may be what we have been conditioned to expect in suburbia, but in a climate like ours, that comes at a cost.  You spray, you water, you fertilize, you edge.  Extra carbon dioxide and other pollutants leech into the atmosphere.  Ground water contamination means don't drink that water out of the irrigation that has to happen twice a week, all year around.

It would make more sense to find a landscape more in tune with where you are.   Oh sure, if you live in the UK or Ireland where lawns need nothing but a trim from time to time, great.  I'm in a place in South Florida where I truly have to wonder have we all lost our minds.

Salt intrusion will fix that I am sure.  

Native plants are best.  Following that, as I was told by a lovely Jamaican woman once, they need to give you something back.  Fruiting plants that something can eat as well.  

I guess that is partly why I made it a point to plant a Mango in my own backyard as well.  Can't put the thing in the front yard, after all, I wouldn't get any of them myself!

You see, someone came through the neighborhood the other day and picked every fruit they could reach.  They will be on sale at a flea market near you soon.

What did the step ladder say to the ladder? You’re not my real dad!

I have driven Jeep Wranglers for quite a while.  I have a vehicle that can take me anywhere that there is a hit of a road.  The one I have is 19 years old, and is as sound as the day I bought it.  It is thirsty and if I can find gas for it, it will probably outlast me.  With only 50,000 miles, it's just a baby.

That combination of the 4 Liter Inline Six designed by AMC and a Manual Five Speed Transmission is usually described as unkillable.

It's taken me to some amazing places where I got to indulge my desires to commune with Nature, see the sunrise over the New Jersey Pine Forests, and see the wildlife where they live.

Take nothing but memories, leave nothing but footprints, and tread lightly.

I never was the kind of Jeep Bro who would carve out water channels through the muck because it just was not my way.  But it was fun to get out to places where once your motor is turned off, the only thing you would hear is the cooling of the heat shields and the breezes through the forest.  

Wildlife was always nearby and you could get out and hike a bit while you are at it.

Just remember When Hiking Near Bears.

The National Park Rangers are advising hikers in Glacier National Park and other Rocky Mountain parks to be alert for bears and take extra precautions to avoid an encounter.

They advise park visitors to wear little bells on their clothes so they make noise when hiking.
The bell noise allows bears to hear them coming from a distance and not be startled by a hiker accidentally sneaking up on them. This might cause a bear to charge.

Visitors should also carry a pepper spray can just in case a bear is encountered. S
praying the pepper into the air will irritate the bear's sensitive nose and it will run away.

It is also a good idea to keep an eye out for fresh bear scat so you have an idea if bears are in the area.
People should be able to recognize the difference between black bear and grizzly bear scat.
Black bear droppings are smaller and often contain berries, leaves, and possibly bits of fur.
Grizzly bear droppings tend to contain small bells and smell of pepper.

Peekaboo, Lizard!

The thing about wildlife photography is you have to be at the right place and at the right time.

Or just scratch that and have things jump out at you.

I have a stand of Bamboo in the backyard that I keep using for "Things... Useful Things".  In this particular case, it is being used as a mount for some solar lights.

Solar lights are generally garbage now, the batteries don't tend to last because they are not using the right metal for a contact for the batteries.  That metal rusts and the lights die.  Or the UV in the sunlight over the years will cloud the plastic over the charging cell.

Crap.

But I was walking past the place where I had the mount getting ready to put the light on top when this little critter looked out to say hello.  

Note to self, don't leave an open spot at the top of a piece of bamboo if you don't want it colonized.  Lizards are fine, but red ants... noooo!
 

Homemade Ant Bait for Sugar Loving Pests.

The recipe is simple.

Ingredients:

3 to 4 tablespoons (42 to 56 ml) hot water

1 tablespoon of Borax

4 tablespoons of common granulated Sugar

A wide mouth jar with a top that seals "Reasonably well".  I suggest a jelly jar.

Process:

This needs hot water to mix all the ingredients.

Use oven mitts so you don't burn yourself.

Add the hot water to the empty jar.

Add the 4 Tablespoons of Sugar to the water.

Stir or shake until the simple syrup is made.

Add 1 Tablespoon of Borax to the liquid.

Stir or shake until the mix is complete.  It will be clear when you are done.

The Use:

I place a few drops to a teaspoon in an old bottle cap.  

The mixture will be about as thick as a maple syrup. 

Do not "Fill" the cap as the ants will need a way to get to the liquid to feed.

Place the cap near or on the ant trails and allow them to feed.

While the mixture is reasonably safe to handle, do not use consume or drink this as you will be eating borax which is used in the laundry to assist whitening and cleaning of your clothes. "Not For Internal Use" (or external use I would assume).

Even though some toys like "Slime" are made with Borax, Don't eat the stuff.

The Story is simple.  There was an ant bloom coming in from next door and we sprayed and put down ant bait.  That kept them away for a while, but we are in the wet season so every time it rained, they came back.

This worked on multiple species of ants, in my garden and seems to work by causing a "Colony Collapse".  They feed on the bait, take it back to the colony to share and it sickens them until the colony can no longer support itself or the queen.  Then they "disappear".

This works on pests that eat sugar and sweets of which are many species. 

Since this is so amazingly cheap to make, I always try this before spraying.  It just requires patience for it to work.

Post Storm Grass and Dragonfly Squadrons

Among the weirdness that has been 2020, I now have a squadron of Dragonflies.

Mind you, I rather like these creatures.  They have been around much longer than have been mankind. 

I am fairly certain why I have them here as well.   We do not treat the grass like most people do to keep the grubs away.

While many areas do this sort of thing, maintaining your lawn with pesticides in some strange recollection of a British Past, this is the tropics.  My little community is built upon a sandbar that was once a swamp and before that most likely a part of a beach.  I expect that within 100 years, it will be a beach again since we've managed to ruin the environment for "Profit!".

That this is the tropics means if you spray things on the ground, they soak quickly into the aquifer through all that sand that we pretend is our soil and you end up soaking your neighbor's pesticides onto your own grass when watering day happens, twice a month here in Broward county.

We have little signs on our yards stating that here there are poisons, stay off until dry.  You end up wondering if there really is anything there, or will your bare feet end up sprouting cloven hooves and glow in the dark as a result.

Not spraying my own yard allows these grubs to become whatever they were, in my case a squadron of dragonflies.

I also have quite a few white Snowy Egrets march across my front yard on a regular basis trying to find what they will for brunch.  They do so in their own entertaining herky-jerky motion, dipping their rapier like beaks into the sandy loam and moving onward like a drinking glass bird.

Don't break those, I've been told that the glass drinking glass birds are filled with a poisonous liquid.  Just a suggestion...

In the weirdness we have all had, we were just brushed by what was Tropical Storm Isaias (or however it is spelled and said).  It didn't create too much damage, here, and left regrowing into a category one hurricane by the time it made it to North Carolina.

Before it had even completely left South Florida, the dragonflies had begun to hatch.  They always come after a rain, and we had just had a week or so of daily soakers.

I welcome them, no matter how many we get.  The dragonflies eat the evil mosquitoes that have a nasty habit of finding me, personally, and dining on my ankles and legs.  That would be why I am always in long pants, preferably Jeans.  Never stand long in one place and always wear protective clothing.

We had so many dragonflies dive bombing the yard, that standing on the corner of my property you could hear their wings flapping in a soft clapping as they dodged through.  It wasn't quite a Locust Swarm event, but it was markedly more than I had ever seen. 

Stepping off of my porch for the evening dog walk, surprised, we left the property with Rack our Faithful McNab Dog.  Getting further down the block, there were fewer dragonflies and noticeably more mosquitoes.  You can thank me later.

Coming back I had grabbed this small section of a picture of my lawn.  A few leaves and there are three dragonflies in that small square.  One is looking right at you, just above the website address.

Finally getting back into the house, we were stopped.  There was one last dragonfly that wanted to come in with us.  It landed next to the door and tried to gain entry.  I did manage to change its mind by squirting it with the hose on gentle mist long enough for us to dart into the house.   It hovered at the door watching us like it belonged in our party.

Strange creatures sometimes appear when you least expect it.  Then they eat your mosquitoes and move on. 

We are seeing the numbers decrease in balance with the numbers of mosquitoes, but since it is in day nine of rain I don't think we will ever see the end of them.

Welcome to Florida, we have overly friendly wildlife.

The first time wildlife encountered me was in my very own backyard.

I've been fascinated by the various lizards that roam around the place here.  Standing in the yard I spotted a rather common lizard.  Something scared it.

Might have been me, I have that effect on some people, and some wildlife.

Might not have been.

The lizard ran onto my shoe, then right up my leg.

And up the pant leg.

I've heard of ants in my pants but never a lizard on my lizard.

I've had posionous toads hop onto my foot while I was picking up after my dog.

I've had more Iguanas turn up in the Bougainvillias and Hibiscus in the yard than I care to count.

Nasty creatures, Iguanas.  No reason for them to be here at all.

Seventeen Ducks making more ducks on my front porch.

This was a much more gentle encounter.

A normal five in the evening Dog Walk.  It's been really quite intensely hot.  90 to 95 in brilliant sun.

Walking around the block and heading toward home, a "something" fluttered around my head and landed on my friend's arm.

A rather beautiful Butterfly.  Mostly black winged, some iridescent blue spots.

Basic Black.  Everyone looks better in basic black.

Being a butterfly, it was completely harmless, and it paid a rather long visit walking around my friends T-shirt, up one arm, down the other and hanging out.

As soon as it started it was over when the little creature went on its way.

I guess it wanted a bit of a rest.