Florida's Wildlife Discovered

 Are you aware of what is lurking in your backyard besides your neighbor’s cat or the meter reader guy? Some pretty scary stuff! I found this Garden Spider hidden in a shrub. This orb weaver Arachnid frequently builds a new web. Hanging head down it waits for a clueless victim to get trapped and end up on the menu. Oh boy, fly ala mode -- yum. Did you ever notice that whenever you go outside at night you almost always walk thru a spider web which causes the most fearless and tough of us to freak out and run around crazily screaming like a little child as we attempt to disengage the sticky threads from our face and hair? This is why spiders have to rebuild their webs frequently. I bet you have some interesting backyard critters also.

You never know where an Alligator is going to turn up, hopefully not in your swimming pool and while you are napping on a raft. These magnificent reptiles are found only in the Southeast United States and most frequently in Southern Florida. I photographed this one as it swam across my swimming pool-just kidding. It came from its cover of saw grass in a canal just west of Boca Raton. I estimate it was about eight feet long. They can reach a length of fifteen feet. Like all creatures, “Gators” are very important to our ecosystem and unfortunately clash with humans as we encroach on their habitat. You’ll see and learn more throughout this website like how you do not want to clash with alligators in their habitat because they have big teeth and stuff.

Florida is the only place in the continental United States that has a coral reef system off the coast. The Florida Keys are world famous for its superb scuba diving and snorkeling (as well as countless cheap all you can eat seafood buffet restaurants), but you may not know that coral reef colonies and their multitude of fascinating inhabitants extend up the east coast more than a hundred miles north of the “Keys.” More than eighty percent of animal life is found in the waters of the world. See some of the creatures that my wife and I have found while scuba diving the reefs in our area, like this tiny Hermit Crab.  

Personally, snakes give me the creeps, but they are very interesting from a distance, and not slithering in my direction. This little fellow was popping his head out of the bushes off a nature trail called the Fakahatchee Strand near the Tamiami Trail in Southwest, Florida. This one is called a Rough Green Snake. I believe it was a juvenile about six to eight inches long. This variety can grow to thirty two inches. Its diet consists of mostly insects and is thankfully non-poisonous. I don’t actively search out snakes, but I have encountered Coral Snakes, Pigmy Rattlesnakes and Water Moccasins, three of the six dangerous types found in Florida. SSSSee more!

Most of Florida’s coastal area has succumbed to development. You will find housing developments crowding places that were once natural open land. Fortunately some smart folks have taken the initiative to reclaim a few spots. These smart folks probably didn't include land developers. Green Cay is a Palm Beach County nature preserve that has been built by scratch, transforming a small farm surrounded by urban sprawl into a wetland teeming with wildlife. Discover this amazing story.

 And… there is tons more. Find out about Butterflies and how to turn your backyard into a sanctuary for wildlife, you know-spiders, alligators and poisonous snakes. Well, maybe not these, but butterflies are harmless.