Today at work...

This is some of the pine rockland where I work. Not my favorite area. I like the shade and dampness of the hammocks.
This is more what I like. You can't really see them very good in this picture, but there are caves here, and they're actually pretty big.

Today at work I got bored and decided to drive around the trails and see what I could find. No sign of the fox from yesterday, but that didn't surprise me at all since I was driving around in a very noisy gas-powered EZGO! What I did find were lots more liguus snails. I don't want to bore y'all, so I promise, no more snail stuff for a while. This will be the last of them (for now?).

I just think they're pretty and try to find as many different ones as I can. These I found without even having to go off-trail.

I found this pretty flower, but I can't find what it is. I hate when that happens...makes me feel like a big dummy.

This is easy - Snowberries!

I also ran into this big mama, a Golden Orb. Last year at this time, these were everywhere. I would kill time by tossing small leaves into their webs and watch them scurry over and tackle it. They would then, with extreme grandeur, toss the offensive leaf out of the web. Very entertaining! Folks I work with thought I was nuts until I showed them. Cheap natural entertainment! So far this summer, though, I haven't seen many around.

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!