I think I've mentioned in a previous post that I love living in a rural area because of the variety of wildlife that makes its home here. After I pulled out of the driveway this morning, I noticed this wood stork over by the canal so I snapped a picture with my cell phone. There was a second one on the other side of the canal, but I didn't get it in the shot.
We've also had an abundance of snakes in the yard this year. They like hanging out in the landscaping we have around the pool. More than once I've been
surprised by them when I've pushed the big leaves of the philodendron aside to pull weeds and found one curled up. Dave thinks its kind of funny...me not so much!!!
Usually they are just black snakes which for the most part are harmless. I've also seen more rabbits this year then in all the past years combined. So far, we've only seen them at night, so I haven't been able to get any pictures. I just hope they stay away from the vegetables!
The picture of the hogs was snapped one day when I was going to have lunch with Dave. To me, the funniest thing about it wasn't that their was a family of hogs on the side of the
ro
ad, but that its so normal, no one around me gave them a second look!
This snake was "hiding" on the trap door to the pool filter. I had reached in to pull out the basket and out he came from the door. I didn't scream, but I must have jumped about 2 feet of the ground!!! We usually see a lot of black snakes around the yard, which are basically harmless, but this guy was pretty scary. The diamond shaped markings lead us to believe he was a pygmy rattler.
Dave just about met this banana spider face to face! We were riding our ATVs in northern Florida on a trail that apparently hadn't been ridden in a while. At the last second, Dave noticed the spider web and was able to stop. Dave knocked down the web with his "spider web stick" (the discarded piece of picket fence in the pic) but the spider wound up on the front of his ATV...so of course, we had to snap a picture!!!
Anyone that knows me knows I don't particularly care for frogs...ESPECIALLY tree frogs. For whatever reason, they always want to jump on me...and they're sticky...and they usually leave bodily fluids behind (are ya' getting the picture?). This one was hanging out on the light at the front of the house catching bugs. I didn't notice him until I had passed right by the light. They have the ability to take on the color of their environment so that freaks me out even more 'cause I never notice them until it's too late.
These turkey vultures were on the side of the road fighting over some roadkill. Pretty gross, but essential to the environment. I can't even imagine what the roads would be like and what the stench would be if these birds weren't so efficient. This was the bird I had mentioned in a previous post about almost hitting while we were on the motorcycles.
