Valerean

Last month my guy and I went out after dinner to run errands, and I saw the sky had turned lavender. This is the actual sky, without any retouching. I've seen sunsets in virtually every color, but not this lovely pale purple. So of course I took pictures! Ha.

It's not every day I walk out into the backyard and find a flock of wild turkeys roosting on the fence. From their coloring I'll guess these guys are Eastern turkeys (the other species in our state, the Osceola, generally live in the panhandle.) With all the development going on around us, woodlands are being cleared, and this flock was probably driven out from their territory into our neighborhood. It's not a good idea to feed wild turkeys, by the way. They lose their fear of humans and can become aggressive, and also stick around when they should be wandering and foraging. Wil turkey hunting season ended in April, so these guys should be safe as long as they avoid the dogs some of my neighbors let out without a leash.

The primary reason my guy inspects our property before mowing it each time are the critters he sometimes finds hiding in the grass. This is a baby gopher tortoise. It's not a newborn but it's not very old; it's about the same size it would be after hatching. These tortoises are endangered, and we have two of their burrows on our property, so we're always on the lookout for them. I just moved one out of the road the other day so it wouldn't get hit by a car. This one seems very early (hatching typically starts around August.) It's also illegal to keep these guys as pets without a permit (not that we need another pet.) So we relocated him near the one recently active burrow on our property. Never a dull moment around here. :)

Signs of spring: my guy came in to tell me there was a snake in the garage, and I went out to take some pics and see if I could encourage it to leave. It hid behind some boxes and buckets we keep under my guy's work bench. From the color and head shape I'm pretty sure it was a black rat snake, and probably came in exploring to hunt for prey. Most snakes only become aggressive when they feel cornered, so in the end we decided to leave the doors open so it could leave on its own.

The eastern bluebird nesting in our most popular bird house hatched four tiny babies; my guy was able to snap this shot while Mama was out hunting for breakfast (there's one hiding behind these three.) Welcome to the world!

My guy asked me what type of lizard this little guy is, and I was pretty sure he was a skink. When I lived in the Panhandle I saw a lot of these orange-headed types, but this was a first for me here. Not everyone loves lizards, but skinks eat a lot of bugs and are harmless. They're difficult to photograph because they're very shy, and usually stick to surfing dead leaves on the ground while hunting for pests. It felt like a treat just to get this one shot.

Our most popular bird house is once again occupied; we first noticed some blue birds flying back and forth from it a couple of weeks ago. When Mama and Papa went off to hunt the other day we took a peek inside. There are three baby blue birds inside. My guy took some better photos and a little video with his phone: https://photos.app.goo.gl/wukppJjt1yQLTRmS9.

Sometimes when I look back through my photo archives I can't help smiling. Same bird house, different tenants.

It dropped below freezing last week, and it will again in another day or so. This doesn't happen very often here -- maybe a few times every December and January. We always cover the citrus trees and our little gardens to prevent damage, although I'm sure the strawberries love the super cold weather. I used to think I could live up north, but now that I'm older and my feet and hands go numb a few seconds after I walk out in weather like this -- no. I bow to you guys for enduring much worse, especially you, Theo.

Some new cows have moved onto the property behind ours; they come to the fence now when they hear the puppies barking as they run around the yard. The smallest dark brown calf skittered away when I went to say hi and take some shots, but this bigger red guy stayed and posed for me. Of course we never attempt to pet or touch the cows next door, as they can get scared or aggressive, and there's only a couple strands of wire between us and them. Since her udders are full I think the spotted white cow might be the dark brown calf's mother.

Twice now I've seen what looks like a finger sticking out of the ground in the yard near our woodpile. It's almost always got flies on it Turns out it's a mushroom, probably some variety of mutinus elegans, aka the elegant stinkhorn (it looks just like them minus the icky top.) Although it's not poisonous, it creeps me out.

The long, hot, wet summer has resulted in a lot of lichen and moss growing on our trees. This is why I really have to watch the puppies and what they pick up in the yard. The deadfall with these growths is oddly gorgeous, even though they look like they come from another planet. I don't know why I'm so fascinated, but I keep taking pictures of the most interesting pieces I find. Weird, but beautiful. I need to embroider that somewhere. :)

My guy was out in the yard picking up tree debris before he mowed the lawn, which is his weekly chore. Lots of trees + summer storms = plenty of falling twigs and branches, some large enough to cause harm to our mower. While he was doing that I came out to walk the boys and saw this moss-covered stick in the grass I don't know why it struck me as something I had to pick up; it's not exactly beautiful. The twig part snapped the second time I handled it, too. But it grabbed my attention. There's something about it that's got my gears whirling, too. This happens to me a few times, and usually with things other people don't notice. Anyway, I stuck both pieces in a little jar and I'm going to look at it for a while.

Saw this big girl hanging on the window screen right before a storm hit: She's roughly about the size of my hand. Kat later identified her as a polyphemus moth. We've seen a few of these before in our yard, but it's still a thrill to get up close to such a big bug.

This was Tropical Storm Isaias when its outer bands arrived here; not really much to speak of compared to basically every other storm we've managed. We had a few tree limbs come down, and a bit of rain, but that was it. Power never even flickered. Since others have not/will not be so lucky, I will be grateful.

Earlier today I saw a bunch of white ibises in our front neighbor's horse pasture, where they were wading in her seasonal lake (think really big rain puddle.) At the time I didn't have my camera with me, and cursed my bad luck, because they're very cool birds, and we don't see them too often. I think they're also psychic, because when I went out to walk the dogs after dinner, guess who was in my backyard? The brown/spotty ones are the juveniles. Some unhappy trivia about white ibises: they are becoming more prevalent in urban areas due to loss of habitat. Up to a third of these birds are infected with salmonella, which they pick up while foraging, and pass along to humans via their feces. Yet another reason to stop feeding wild birds and otherwise encouraging them to hang with humans. They posed long enough for me to take a few shots, and then flew off: Never a dull moment in the back yard. :)

My guy caught this little ring-necked snake in the garage last night (and I apologize for the blurriness of the shot; this was the best I could manage with how he was wiggling.) We actually haven't seen one of these since we left South Florida 16 years ago, and since they're nocturnal and very shy we probably won't see one again. After I snapped the pic we took him far away from the house and set him free.

Just some pics today. One of the many reasons I love summer is because of the rain storms. I'd sleep out on the porch if I could to listen to the rain all night. :)

We've seen a few praying mantises around the house before, but never one like this: The mottled gray color suggests it might be a Carolina mantis : Katherine also noticed this cicada that had just molted: Always something new to see in the back yard. :)