Out My Window

This old guy was outside my window at work yesterday.  Thought I'd play around with my phone camera and take a few pics of him.

Not bad for a phone. Though the last one is a little blurry.

I'll miss our friendly raccoons when I move to PA.  They say the raccoons there are mean and if you see one during the day, it's going to have rabies.  Our Florida coons love the daytime!  Funny to actually see the changes in animals due to their environments like that.

Squirrel Surprise

Yesterday was a very windy day.  A co-worker was walking to the office when all of a sudden something big fell out of a tree right in front of him...a squirrel's nest!  As soon as it hit the ground, a squirrel ran out of it, so he stopped and picked up the nest and leaned it against a tree by the office.  He called me to come out and see it, so I went out and joined the rest of our guys who were standing around looking at it, checking it out.  There was a smaller squirrel still in it!  So we all backed off and as we did, we saw the mama squirrel making her way back to the nest.  We watched her as she jumped on top of it, then disappeared (all but her tail!) inside.  She backed out and had the little one in her mouth...she turned and ran off.  One of our guys watched where she was going and she immediately ran up another tree and put the baby in another nest!

We thought the nest was empty, but still didn't mess with it.  To our surprise, not more than a minute after depositing her baby, she was back at the old nest...and...pulled out another baby!  We were all shocked because we didn't see anything else in it!  We watched her run up the other tree and drop the baby in the nest and were all just in awe of the whole thing.

Here's the weird part - she kept going back to the old nest...over and over again.  We're not sure if she was taking pieces of it up to her "new" home or what, but when I came into work this morning, the nest was unrecognizable as a nest.  She had tore it completely to pieces.

A couple things amazed me about that mama squirrel...she didn't spend any time at all looking for a new place for her kids - she IMMEDIATELY took them to an old nest, so squirrels must know where all the nests in the area are and if they're occupied or not (there were 3 nests much closer that she didn't go to).  And she had no hesitation, no fear of us at all, either time she came for her babies.  We gave her space, but there were 4 of us no more than 10 feet away.  She didn't care. She had a mission.

Surprise Orchid

This little orchid popped up at work today.  No one here planted it, so we have no idea where it came from, if it's native or even what kind of orchid it is!  I've tried googling and have come up empty-handed.

Any ideas?

UPDATE: Mystery Animal

Damn.  Just a pack of dogs. 

We had the camera set up where we saw a different set of prints.  After doing a little research, I had a feeling those prints were canine, but the prints I showed you in my last post are not canine (IMHO at least), so we'll move the camera to that area next week.  This weekend, I'm going to set the camera up in the hardwood hammock for shits and grins to see what creatures lurk in there in the night.

So...the investigation continues.......

Mystery Animal

So my boss found these prints today out on the trail at work.  They don't match up with Bobcat prints.  There are no claw/nail marks, so most likely not a dog.  Besides, they're actually pretty big...4" long and 3 1/2" across on the biggest print.  My sister and brother-in-law both say it's a panther.  They hunt ALOT, so I trust them, but...seriously?  A panther?  Where I work?  Hmmm.... so what do y'all think about it?  Any thoughts or ideas?

If anyone wants to see more pictures, let me know...I took a bunch of them.  

(I'm thinking Chupacabra...)

Bored at Work

When I get bored at work, I like to grab my dinky POS camera and take some pictures.  I got bored early today and took these before 9:00am.  I may try to go later and take the exact same pictures again when the sun is at a different angle to see how they compare.

I kinda like the Fakahatchee seeds.

I need to look this "weed" up...It's really prettier than it looks here.

Yes, another picture of a Liguus tree snail. 

A Bottle Full of Babies

Of the two brown widows I have sitting on my desk at work, only one so far - Charlotte - has had babies hatch out of one of her egg sacs.

At least 50 itty-bitty spiders...

Getting food into the bottle is a bit of a challenge since they like to gravitate to the top where the opening is.  I have to kind of knock them all down before I can open it to drop insects in. 

I feel like such a homewrecker when I do that.

The saga of Brisket the bull on Animal Planet!

If you remember a while back, I talked about a stray bull that was loose in the park I work.  Well, I finally saw the episode on Animal Cops Miami that showed the adventure of catching "Brisket"!  Animal Cops Miami - Miami Menagerie is the episode and it's on again this Thursday, July 29th, at 1:00pm.

I caught a brief glimpse of myself and co-worker, Lily, as well as my boss, Pam, who was taped quite a few times. 

So if you get a chance, set your DVR and watch it! I wonder what ever happened to Brisket the bull...he gave us quite a bit to talk about for a while!

New Office Pet

You can't see her, but she's safely inside that bottle on my desk. 

Her name is "Matilda" and she's a brown widow spider.

I am thinking that she'd be good for kids to see when we have programming.

She may also be a good deterrent for those who like to sit at my desk for reasons unknown...

A big thanks to Mitch...my supplier!

Babies on the way!

I found these two spiders on a Gumbo Limbo tree at work, guarding what I assume are their odd egg sacs.  I have googled and googled but cannot find anything that helps me identify what kind of spiders these are.  Any ideas?  They are small and pretty flat...

There are two of these spiders hanging out guarding their respective sacs in a nearby tree.  I "believe" they are Leucauge venustas.  Again, anyone know for sure?

New Beginnings

Views during my Friday commute

Chased this pretty balloon in the morning on my way to work. I see this one up alot on nice, clear, calm mornings, but I've never gotten a shot this close before.

Stopped at the gas station to get some juice and had to snap a pic of the gorgeous Tabebuia out front.

Got to work and noticed the Cigar Orchid outside my office window was blooming again.

Then, driving home, I caught a glimpse of the damndest thing...a boat on wheels! Can you see it in my mirror? Unfortunately, that was the best shot I could get of it. Bizarre!

Beautiful but Deadly

These were taken by a coworker of mine right outside our office back door...

Not a big snake and not aggressive at all, but you still don't want to mess with them.

A shy little guy who just wanted to get away from the crazy lady with a camera!

Oh, if you don't know what kind of snake that is, it's a coral snake. Deadly venomous, yet there have been no recorded deaths from their bite (at least not in Florida). They are in the same family as cobras, but are rear-fanged. They have to get a really good mouthful and chomp down hard to inject their venom.

But really, they are pretty shy creatures who just try to scoot away as quick as they can.

A Fun Day at Work

Yesterday, we celebrated our re-opening at work (eventhough we've technically already been open for a couple months now). One of the commissioners came, our department director and LOTS of kids from neighboring parks. Our naturalist contacted the zoo and this very nice guy brought over an alligator, gopher tortoise, striped skunk and a BIG Eastern Indigo snake (all native to Florida).

The skunk was so cool...very friendly and social, and NO he didn't smell bad at all! His musk gland had been removed. The tort was, well...a tort... and the Indigo was just gorgeous and very well-behaved.

I got to hold the little gator all day. His name was "Tootsie Roll" and he was a sweetie. I even removed the rubber band that was on his mouth. He never snapped (though I know he could've!) and was very patient with all the llittle hands feeling his rough, bony back and long tail.


All the kids loved being able to actually touch a gator, as well as the other critters, though the big snake freaked alot of folks out. One little girl was amazed and told me how cool it was to be so "close to nature", then she whipped out her cell phone and started taking lots of pictures. Touching that one girl in a positive way made the whole thing worthwhile.

It was a good day!

Last weekend, a bunch of us went for a cache called "The Ghost Orchid" in the Fakahatchee Strand. I'll post about that adventure later as I am trying to get things together to go kayaking up at Oleta River State Park. Just a few m,iles north of here and yet I have never been there!

Ya'll have a great weeked!!

Hundred year old treasure or junk?

Last week I had found another trail in the hammock where I work. I'd walked down it a little ways and to my shock found lots and lots of those black plastic pots that plants come in. How they got there, I have no idea. My sister thinks maybe they blew in during a hurricane since we are surrounded by nurseries and farms. Well, today I decided I'd go back out there and start getting some of the pots out of there. As I was pulling the pots, I noticed something yellow in the distance...something sticking out of the ground...I pulled it out and this was what I'd found:

A treasure! From the date on it and what I could find online, it is from 1908! I also read that the company was bought out by Wrigley's so that right there dates it, too. I brought it home and cleaned it up as best I could. I'm sure in it's condition, it's not worth a dime, but to me it's priceless!

I can't wait to see what I can find next week!

Brisket the Bull...the final chapter?

Back on Feb. 9th, I posted about "Brisket" the wayward Brahman bull that wandered onto our property at work. We thought he was long gone after that post, but on Feb. 17th, he showed up again...and this time Animal Services (followed by Animal Planet) were actually prepared to catch him.

By the time I got out to ground zero, they had Brisket tranqued. It wasn't easy moving him out of the pine rockland, but they did it.

The cameras were rolling as he got to his feet. Right after I took this shot, he got a little spunky and decided to charge. We all ran in different directions to get out of his way, but thankfully, the guys from Animals Svcs. had a tight hold on the rope.

He was stilled a bit dopey and allowed a couple folks to get closer to him.

We had to wait for a trailer from the SPCA to arrive, so decided to move him into a shady spot. He didn't want to cooperate.

Finally, the guys got him as far as he would go. Brisket decided to rest for a while...still groggy. If you click here: http://animal.discovery.com/fansites/mapd/mapd.html You can see a picture of the woman on the far right, Kathy, and also see if you can find out when this episode will air. The producer (the woman in the turquoise and long sleeve shirt below) had no idea when it will be on, so keep your eyes open for it! You might even see me!!

He was a cutie! They estimated his age to be 12-14 months and weighing about 450lbs.

That's Lily, our naturalist, giving him some water.

This guy did ALOT of the work and gave some blood, too.

More filming!

They finally decided to tie him to two trees across the path from each other so he couldn't get lose, and no one had to hold on to him.

I don't think Brisket had warm fuzzies for this guy!

Finally, the trailer arrived, but now they had to get him over to the parking lot. The chase was on!

Everyone tried not to get in front o fhim as we were told that he would NOT follow anyone, so it was like a game of guided chase. Brisket was not amused.

When a bull doesn't want to move, you can't make him move!

Finally up to the trailer...now to get him in!

I didn't know you could steer a cow by pulling on their tail. Ya learn something everday!

Success!

Now Brisket will be up for auction. I hope someone buys him who appreciates him for what he is...not what he could be... *gulp*!