Camouflage Lizard

Ugly, camouflaged lizard, with blue eyes, hiding in the bird house.

I hate big, fat spiders!

Interesting that they can "walk" on the water's surface, but --   UGGGH!

Take your babies and GET OUT OF MY POOL!



FYI: This is a WOLF Spider walking on the water in my pool.. They carry their babies on their backs while they hunt. I call them "speedy spiders" because you have to be really quick if you want to "eliminate" them- they are frightfully fast at getting away!

Gray Gator

Alligator swimming in the pond behind our house on a windy, fall day in Florida.  (It looks like I used black and white photography, but these are the actual colors!)

Fall flowers of Florida

The weather turned brisk in south west Florida this morning,  and my plants held on tightly to their blooms....

Creamy yellow plumeria

Pink plumeria

Desert Rose

Dinner with an alligator

Lately I've been fortunate to see our fairly elusive alligator. I've been able to sneak some shots of him as he sleeps on the banks of the lake behind our house.  However, I never catch him "doing" anything other than sleeping or swimming away.... until today!

I couldn't believe I caught him on video having his dinner of tilapia!

(So that none of you worry about me, I often film through our screened-in porch.  Because of that, please forgive the quality of this video.  Also, I am fairly afraid of these pre-historic creatures, so I shoot with a 70x zoom- which accounts for some of the shaking.  Also, no audio on this one- speaks for itself!)

Great White Heron Ballet

White Heron walking daintily on a hedge.

 White Heron pre-flight

Gator at the door!

 

At three o’clock in the morning I was awakened by a banging sound coming from the front of our house. I jumped out of bed to look out our glass front doors, thinking maybe someone’s tampering with our car in the driveway. Our dog usually barks when someone is around, but I noticed she’s looking (but not barking) out the dining room window towards the driveway too. It was a full moon and it is fairly bright outside but I didn’t see anyone, and apparently, neither did the dog, when all of a sudden the glass doors- right in front of me- shook hard as if someone WAS standing there and trying to get in!

I ran to the bedroom.

“There’s something trying to get in our house!” I screamed at my husband.

“Something or someone?” he skeptically replied.

“I don’t know! There’s no one there! But something banged on the front door and I was standing right there and there’s no one there!” I stammered.

(Footnote: My husband is painfully aware that I leave room for the possibility that ghosts exist, so I am sure that he was quite amused and was not in any hurry to investigate at this point.)

I ran back to the door and a movement caught my eye.

“Don’t open the door and don’t turn the light on...!” I call out to my husband. “I’m getting the kids!”

In a flash, I was across the house, grabbed my two sleeping teenagers by the scruffs of their necks, and quickly dragged them back to the front door.

“Look!!” I tell them and turn on the porch light.

What my kids did next nearly amazed me as much as what we saw! (now remember, both kids- sound asleep, abruptly awakened and quickly dragged across the house half asleep)

Both kids immediately pulled out their cell phones!! ....... and that’s how we were able to get the picture “gator at the door”!

 

 

 

This photo was taken a few years ago. It is possible that this is the same gator that I have been photographing lately.