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If you have a huge backyard full of exotic landscape or just a few potted plants then you can find critters. My home is on less than one quarter of an acre and over the last 24 years I’ve transformed it into a tropical paradise full of palms, bamboo, native trees and shrubs. This little rain forest is a sanctuary for all sorts of birds, insects, reptiles and small mammals. I never know what I am going to find when I go outside, so I always have a camera on standby. In the case of the not so welcome animals like poisonous snakes, I have a large broom on standby as well. Some of the visitors are very obvious and others are stealthy. It is a good test of your observation skills to find tiny critters hiding and I guarantee if you look intently you will be rewarded. Here is a partial list of what I have seen over the years: raccoons, possums, turtles, iguanas, assorted exotic tropical birds that escaped from the Miami Zoo when hurricane Andrew destroyed their aviary and a walking stick (this is an insect that looks like a stick). Here is a list of the uninvited animals that had me go for the broom: coral snakes & a large rat. One small coral snake found its way into the kitchen and freaked out our dog, and another time a large one was on the side of the house, again freaking out the dog. One evening I was walking our dog out back and a large rat jumped out of a palm tree and started to chase us, freaking us both out. Too bad the broom was in the house.
I have specifically planted certain flora that attracts wildlife. Milkweed has a flower that attracts Monarch butterflies. They feed on the nectar and lay their eggs on the underside of the leaves. After 3 to 12 days the eggs hatch and become caterpillars (larvae) which eat the leaves and grow up to be these plump looking critters. After they have devoured all they can eat, usually stripping the milkweed bare, the larvae crawl off to transform into butterflies. Full size caterpillars reach about 2 inches long. Toxins from their milkweed diet make them poisonous to predators with the exception of a non-native lizard called the Curlytail. These voracious eaters love to snack on Monarch caterpillars. The day we were photographing caterpillars; there were more than a dozen within the garden. We started noticing them dwindle in numbers as the day progressed. We suspected they were being eaten by a large Curlytail we had named Fred and sometime late in the day saw him attack and devour one. Yuck! It splattered all over the place. Fred looked like a crazed tourist at a free, all you can eat Vegas style buffet. You will find a picture of Fred on the lizard page. You can’t miss him; he’s the fat one with a big smile on his face.
Here is a Monarch butterfly drinking nectar from a milkweed flower. To take this photo I have a digital SLR camera with a 105mm macro (close-up) lens. Hey, this sounds technical! There will be more about photography on an upcoming page
This Monarch butterfly has just emerged from its cocoon. It survived the wrath of Fred. When its wings are completely dry it will most likely head north.
Now who would take a photograph of a stupid fly? Me! When you use a close-up lens everything looks cool. If you take the time to study some of the most common of wildlife you will find fascinating features and behavior. Think about that next time a fly or mosquito buzzes in your ear. Every creature on Earth has a purpose and is here for the benefit for all. Some flies, like the maggot fly, are part of a recycling system that helps dead and decaying life to break down. I have not identified this fly, but it could be a flower fly. It spent a great deal of time around this milkweed flower and I had no idea that some flies feed on nectar and pollen. So next time you are bothered by a fly, watch what it’s up to. A bit of advice; if you attend a party, think carefully about bringing up the fact that you spend a lot of time watching flies and maggots-especially around the snack table.
You might be wondering how I shot this Dragonfly. I could say it was skill and patience with many hours of setup and preparation only performed by an expert photographer… Well, that’s not the case. It was pure luck of being in the right place at the right time. As I said before you never know what you will find if you spend enough time immersed in nature. While I was looking for subjects in my garden this dragonfly landed on a nearby plant and I got one shot off before it took flight. This was also taken with a film camera (remember these dinosaurs?) and I had to wait a week to see the resulting image.
By making my yard as natural as possible it attracts everything including some insects that sometimes are considered pests. This colorful Grasshopper was having fun devouring this hibiscus leaf and flower. A grasshopper diet is only supposed to consist of grass, leafs and cereal crops, but they will eat other things which is evident by the disappearing flower.
The same milkweed that was attracting the monarch butterfly and the fly was also the work place for this ant. I was in West Virginia recently and observed a lone flowering plant in a field and I counted 9 different variety of insect on it. This shows you there is a great deal of life happening around us in the most isolated of places. A fun thing to do is to go outside and mark off a 20 feet by 20 feet area and see how many living things you can find in a half hour or longer. It can be very relaxing just hanging out in nature.
Despite all the development in my neighborhood, Raccoons seem to be thriving, which is evident in this video. These stealthy creatures usually show up in the nighttime for midnight swims being as they’re nocturnal and our pool is the only local watering hole. But, early one summer morning we were awakened by the chatter of this frisky couple. It must have been one heck of a night! Enjoy the Raccoon Dance.
This extreme close-up was taken after I had walked out back and almost stepped on this monster. I ran back inside and got my camera (always locked and loaded for such instances). I was able to get down low and close with my macro lens and this grasshopper was eager to pose. Look at the fascinating detail in its eye. You also get a detailed look at its mouth area where its pinchers (mandibles) are, which are used to cut and tear its food.
Oh no, I have more snakes in my yard! Oh well, at least this one is small and non- poisonous. My best ID for this slithering sneak is a Racer. This is the closest I have been to it since most encounters involve the snake slip sliding away. Again, this was a lucky shot and I was able to get my camera before it disappeared.
And now for something really scary: a hungry gray squirrel. He’s got that glazed look in his eye! Yeah, the one that means there is no more seed in the bird feeder. We have given up on finding the perfect squirrel proof feeder. All have been dismantled, mangled and completely destroyed over the years by these cleaver creatures, so we fill the feeder with seed that squirrels and birds will like because we are pushovers. I have a feeling that the companies that make squirrel-proof bird feeders actually hire squirrels as design engineers, guaranteeing the company will sell a lot of replacements. Maybe I should invest in these companies. This is just a thought. Anyway, squirrels are fun to watch. This one frequently hangs upside down from the feeder as he eats. I wonder if his cousin works at the bird feeder factory – just a thought.
Here is a photo of our backyard patio
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