Nighthawks are nesting at one of my job sites. There are at least three nests in progress.

Parent, sitting:


Babies!


A distant great horned owl greeted me as I drove in this morning:


Commmon myna at Burger King in Florida City:


Last weekend, another cottonmouth was found at my parent's house. The snakes seen recently have all been of a similar size I am wondering where the "big momma" is.


Knight Anole on the palm tree outside our apartment. This spot is popular for the local lizards. On this same tree we have seen green iguana, green anole, brown anole, and now Knight Anole. I think the squirrel has been ousted.

This family of ducks lives in our neighborhood. A muscovy duck and her babies have "adopted" this strange duckling. I am not sure where it could have come from since we only have muscovies around here. It is already almost as large as the mother duck. And it peeps incessantly, poor thing. This is only a cell phone pic, taken while sunning Tadpole this morning.



Speaking of Tadpole, she has shed the skin from her face and is doing much better. Whoever had sold her to the pet store had "dyed" her skin to make her appear more red. (Red beardies are more desirable and more expensive. I didn't care too much about her color when I bought her, I wanted a companion for Pebbles).

She has been grumpy the past week while shedding but has been gobbling up her silkworms nonetheless.



In other news, the silkworm eggs have hatched! Here is one of them being consumed by President Lincoln. The unhatched eggs are on the left.

I am amazed to report that the silkworms are thriving. They are eating like monsters and growing at an alarming rate. The eggs I bought have not hatched yet though.





Yesterday we got takeout from a local "British Pub." The food was good but the place seemed more like an American idea of what a pub should be. I got Fish and Chips, and appropriately, we took our meal to the beach for a picnic dinner.
Birds were pretty scarce. A few pelicans and frigatebirds flew over but that was about it.

Sea turtle nesting season is underway and there were numerous nests along the beach. The wire is to protect the nests from being dug up by scavengers (raccoons, dogs, etc.). The holes in the mesh are small enough for the babies to escape after hatching.



The most cooperative subject of the day was this ghost crab:





Next weekend I am going to search out a more "authentic" pub that serves Yorkshire Pudding! I have been craving that stuff something terrible.

The weather is settling into the normal summer routine: baking hot mornings and afternoons, building the massive thunderstorms which unleash just in time for evening traffic.

My latest project is breeding silkworms for Tadpole. They are more nutritious for her than crickets and mealworms but finicky to keep. Everything has to be sterilized. You cannot touch them or else they will die from bacteria on your hands. They have to be fed a special chow which has to be boiled and mixed to just the right consistency, then refrigerated and sliced for them, again without touching it or else it will be contaminated and they will die. Needless to say I am doubtful that I will be successful! :)

Not been doing much photography lately. Too hot. Here are a few shots from today:

Limpkin


Tricolor Heron




Anhinga


Swallowtail Kite

Another cottonmouth from my parent's house.



This past few weeks has been very good for snake spotting. Mangrove snakes and green watersnakes were abundant last week, and this week at my parent's house there was the cottonmouth plus a tiny Florida Brown Snake. Also there was a large Banded Watersnake by the lake at our apartment. Black racers are numerous everywhere and often spotted darting across dirt roads and into the shrubbery.

In other news, Tadpole has finished her meds and is much improved. She is eating readily and more active. However I have an issue with her "poo" so will probably be bringing a sample to the vet this week. Hopefully its nothing major.

Finally, here is a photo of the fish tank. The fish are doing well and I have recently added some red-leg and electric blue-leg hermit crabs. I want to get an anemone for the clownfish but have not found anything suitable yet.

More reptile shots.



The tiny one is from Tadpole's third clutch, just hatched.


Beardie pyramid!


Savannah monitor:


Spur-thigh tortoise, or eco-friendly lawnmower:


Burmese Python


In other news, hurricane season began June 1. Right on cue, a tropical storm formed earlier this week but quickly dissipated. I can't wait till November.

I am fond of nighthawks and their boomerang shaped wings. Last year I fostered Aldous Hawksley, a baby that was dislodged from its nest at the office. They nest on inhospitable rock, sand, and gravel, where they and their eggs are perfectly camouflaged.

This one decided a scrap of fabric would be easier on the feet than the baking rock:


Their feathers have such fascinating texture and I love their tiny feet:


Wildlife in general has been more abundant this week due to the onset of the summer rains.

Mangrove snake in the salt marsh:


Green Heron


Double Crested Cormorant


Alligator

Did another reptile photo shoot this weekend. Filled all my memory cards! I will be working on these for a while.

Here are a couple I worked on today:







Tadpole continues to improve. She is a lot more active now and eating on her own. I bought some silkworms online last week. They finally arrived today and she loves them! They are more healthy for her than the mealworms from the pet store, so my next project will be to set up silkworm breeding so I have a constant supply. I also bought her some hornworms, which are big green caterpillars. So far no interest in them.

For the most part. First a quick Tadpole update, she is not showing any ill effects from her medication except seeming a bit grumpy. She takes mealworms from me in the morning. Today I found her with some veggies on her face, so even if she didnt eat any at least she was showing some interest.

Here are some photos from the last couple of weeks, taken at various locations.

Cooperative Green Heron posing:









Here you can see why the Anhinga is sometimes referred to as "water turkey"



Peacock displaying:





Brown Basilisk. Another exotic reptile that has become naturalized in South Florida.

Yesterday I took Tadpole to a vet that specializes in reptiles and found out that she has several types of parasites: worms, amoebas, trichomonas, and some other stuff I probably should have written down! Plus her liver is inflamed, probably due to the parasites. And to top it all off, she is ovulating!

Anyway the vet was very knowledgeable and said that Tadpole is in pretty good shape otherwise, even after laying so many eggs, so she should be able to pull through. She prescribed some meds which will be very tough on her system but doing nothing is not an option after what happened with Pebbles. I got some probiotics for her which she will need after the course of antibiotic to get her digestive flora back in balance. She seems a little better today and even ate a mealworm! So I am more optimistic about her condition.

In completely unrelated news, last night I went to see my favorite band, Type O Negative, in Ft. Lauderdale. It was awesome! Here's a crappy cell phone pic:



Normal service should resume this weekend when I finally have time to go through some pictures and post the usual wildlife photo type stuff!