Rewild The World, George Monbiot

Summer Flowers

We've had a ton of rain here lately and this little day lily has decided to finally bloom. Isn't it pretty! It's called a White Beach Spider Lily. I wish I had more of them, so delicate.

Summer Tree Planting

What does a crazy lady do when her a/c is on the fritz and it's 95 degrees outside?  Why go outside and plant a tree of course! This is a Royal Poinciana Tree that I grew from a seed.

I planted it in the yard today in hopes that in 10 or 20 years it will provide the house with some much needed afternoon shade.

When it grows up, with any luck it will look like this beauty! Until then, I guess I have to call the a/c repairman again, ugh.

Summer Storm

A few days ago, we had a doozy of a late afternoon thunderstorm and this large branch of my carrotwood tree, came down.

After I trimmed away all the branches that I could, this was left.

I'm considering leaving it like this for now. I think it looks kind of cool, like the tree is trying to get up and walk away!

Saturday Morning Squirrel Watching

 Inside

Outside :)

Happy Saturday!

Froggy Footprints

Several mornings lately when I go out to the driveway, I'm finding track marks in the dew drops on my new car! 

I could not tell at first what was crawling around on my car in the night and I was worried it would scratch the paint.

Not sure what was happening here. 

Maybe a nightly critter hoedown under the moon?

Finally after a few days of this,

 I could make out the hoofers telltale shape.

Looks like my car is playing dance floor to a froggy free style routine!

At least the paint is safe. Dance on little frog, dance on!

Eeek, What is it?!

Summer in Florida brings on not only the heat, but some cool creatures as well. I found this guy outside my garage chasing a lizard up my brick wall. I guess I spooked him because he took refuge under the wall a/c unit for a whole day. I tried to coax him out with some lettuce, he was not interested.

I know it's a reptile, but what kind? Iguana, Bearded Dragon, someones missing pet, not sure? He was about 12 inches long and had some greenish/yellow stripes under his neck.  I was hoping to get more photos, but the next time I looked, he was gone. I now have a hole in the ground about his size, at the bottom of that wall. I wonder if he dug himself a tunnel to live in? Anyone have any idea what kind of lizard he is?

It Might Be Spring!

 The flowers are blooming.

 My Pigeon Peas are flowering.

 I love how delicate these tiny flowers are!

My parsley is growing secondary leaves. It's also 86 degrees outside and yesterday we had a thunderstorm. It just might be Spring!

The Hitchhiker Fish

 

Look what we found by surprise, a baby American Flag-Fish! Last summer when we were gathering native minnows and fish from the canal near our house, I also brought back some plants and vegetation to keep in a large tub on the patio. I wanted to grow some plants and algae to feed the fish in the tanks. The only fish I put in the tub were a couple of mosquito fish, to eat any mosquito larva that developed.

Well, lo and behold, this week when cleaning out the tub, I found the mosquito fish doing well and this tiny Flag-Fish. It's a female, only a half inch long. Since Flag-Fish are egg layers, I assume her egg was attached to some of the plants and it hatched in the tub.

We had no idea she was in there and now she has been relocated to a more luxurious residence in my large aquarium. There is a larger female already there to keep her company, so we hope she likes her new home :)

Please Don't Feed the Animals.

Earlier this week, we went out for a walk along the canal by our house.  Other than this waterbird perched on a branch, we could not see much of anything in the water.

Most of the canal was covered over by thick water lettuce. So since it was almost lunch time, we decided to get some chicken and have lunch at the park.

Which was then abruptly interrupted by this guy!  Five minutes after sitting down, out of the woods he came marching. Nose in the air and heading right for our table. Seems KFC is potent raccoon bait!
He had no fear at all, so I assume someone has been feeding him. Really bad idea! Dangerous for us and for him.  We said our goodbyes and went home to eat our chicken in peace.

Florida Tank Update

 Our Florida freshwater tank is doing great!

All the plants are growing and we haven't lost a single fish.

So far the Flagfish are getting along with everyone.

I tried to get some good photos of the males, but it's amazing how hard it is to photograph moving fish!

This is the best shot of the larger male Florida Flagfish.

  Isn't he beautiful!

Another Fish Tale

I know they may be hard to see, but our Molly had babies! If you look close you can see the tiny fry in these photos. There are about fifteen altogether. Not sure if they will make it, some will be eaten unfortunately. If they did all survive every time, we would run out of tank space fast! So we will let nature take it's course and see.

New Aquarium for our Florida Fish

Our ditch fish are getting new digs!  We have been busy setting up a 29 gallon tank for them. It's quite an improvement over the little 2 gallon they have been in. Right now we are waiting for the water to cycle and establish some good bacteria. There are some live plants, a few snails and a couple of common mollies in it for now.

So far all is well and we will add the others in a week or two.  On our last net dipping we caught two sailfin mollies and a flag fish.  We still have the 10 gallon tank with the pet store fish, but my son is obsessed with the ditch fish we found and wants to keep going to see what else we can discover. Florida has quite an array of critters in our ditches and canals. Not to mention a few not so friendly guys too, but we are steering clear of them!

Our Backyard Hawk

I think I was interrupting his dinner.

He seemed annoyed with the timing of my photo opt :)

Some Old With Some New Fish

 

For his recent 8th birthday, all my son wanted was to set up his aquarium again with some new fish.
Great I thought, easy peasy! The fish tank was in the garage and with any luck, everything still worked. It did, saved a few dollars there for sure.

Then it was off to the pet store to find some 10 cent fish. Maybe even a 50 cent fish or two. Ha!
Thirty minutes and $53 later we had eleven new fish.  Eleven tiny fish, a bottle of water conditioner and a tiny container of fish food...$53!

All I can say is that I'm sure glad the tank and pump worked and that $6 for a 1/2 inch fish is ridiculous! My son is very happy and determined to make sure they all live a long a healthy life.
They better, because any replacements will be minnows from the canal down the road :)

Summer Science Projects

image: USDA

This summer we are planning some science projects involving local resources. First up will be collecting water samples and viewing their microscopic contents.

My good friend, the local veterinarian, loaned us her extra microscope for our studies. We are so grateful for her assistance with extra supplies and learning materials, I would not have access to otherwise (not free anyway)!

I found some great links online for identification and experiment ideas:

Protist Park : Contains an introduction to Protists (pond life) and video gallery of mini movies and a cool short story with the movie links included in order.

Nikon MicroscopyU : This site contains many great live video and image galleries for many subjects including pond life. Ton's of educational material here!

The Freshwater Life: Has everything you new to know about collecting samples, growing specimens and identifying them. Lots to learn!

So we are going hunting for pond scum is Florida's swamps and ponds (well, around the neighborhood anyway). Hope we make it back alive!

Culvert Cat

This is Scat Cat's favorite sleeping spot these days. Unless it's raining and the water is flowing!
He still won't let me touch him, but he seems ok otherwise.

We Have a Pineapple!

I'm so excited! We have a pineapple growing in a pot!

We tried them in the yard before and for some reason they never bloomed. Considering the history in my area, I never understood why. Pineapples have been growing here for centuries.

 I hope it continues to grow!

Happy Spring 2012

Oh the humble periwinkle, how I love thee! I know to some you are just a weed, but here you are the brightest spot in my garden and the only one who survives, in spite of my "less than green" thumb. Thank you for sprinkling your lovely colors around my home.

Scat Cat

Our feline friend is still hanging around. I guess it's been about a year and a half now, so we decided to name him. We went with "Scat Cat" because he still scatters whenever we get too near. Also I tell him to scat when I catch him stalking a bunny or squirrel.

I was hoping to have him neutered and vaccinated by now but alas, he's just not that into it. So we feed him and toss him a cat nip toy now and again. He plays with it and comes twice a day for food. He likes to sit under my car or roll around the driveway in the sun.

He sniffed my hand once but that was as close as he got. I suppose he might warm up yet. Until then, Scat Cat just hangs around to eat and play and that's ok with us :)