My first post!

Hi to anyone reading this! My goal with this blog is to stick to all thing Florida-plants, animals, towns, oddities and even recipes.

I love discovering my state. I try to take backroads whenever I can. Even in the city where I live, I can probably tell you at least 10 different ways to get somewhere. I love to explore!

Well for my first post, I will tell you about my day at work. With the rains we've been getting, the liguus tree snails have been very active. Tuesday, I found 9 of them right outside my office. Two were larger and the rest were what I thought were babies. Ha! Today, I found a real baby, about the size of my chewed off pinky fingernail. I don't know how I ever saw him!

Here are some of the others I found~

Pretty, huh?

They are listed as a Species of Special Concern and in the U.S., are mainly found in the Everglades and Big Cypress. I am lucky that where I work is surrounded by hardwood hammocks and the snails LOVE hardwood hammocks! Wild Tamarinds are one of their favorite trees to hang out on. They eat the moss and fungus that grows on the trunks of the trees. When the weather starts to dry up, the estivate, which just means they seal themselves inside their shells with a special mucous. This is why you should never pull a snail off a tree! If it's seal is broken, it dies :( So it's best to just look and not touch these beautiful creatures.

I also finally got to see our resident non-native lizard, an African Redhead Agama. I know, he's not native, so why am I talking about him? He's cute and fast and colorful. They are not a threat to native wildlife and don't seem to be rapidly reproducing. I was just happy to finally see him when it seems everybody I work with has seen him a few times!



Here he is!













Bees!!!


These are bees totally covering a new screech owl box. The picture isn't very clear because I took it through the windshield of the truck! I just went to a class and learned about Africanized honey bees and domesticated ones. I'm thinking these may be domesticated, but it will take a bee expert to know for sure. Hopefully one will be out soon!