Monday Photos

We’re down to our last week of school–three and a half more days now. I still have a lot to get done, but it’s nice to see the end in sight!

This green anole kept ducking out of sight in the palm tree today, and then looking out from its hiding place.

Green anole in the sun.

On the side of the house the big guy–the dominant male in that area–was in his favorite spot on top of the fence, surveying his territory.

Down below the skittish red-headed male tried a few dewlap displays, but then quickly ran away into the vines.

We had a brief shower this afternoon that left a few raindrops on leaves.

Sophie watching birds flying overhead.

Tuesday Photos

Sophie and Lulu outside together.

And Lulu by herself.

The basil plants are growing quickly.

This brown anole was climbing on the fence.

There were several grackles in the backyard this afternoon. Grackles are black birds with shiny iridescent feathers and pale eyes. This is a male grackle, and he noticed a nearby female.

The male grackle displayed by fluffing out his feathers, making himself look much bigger and more impressive. A bright ray of sunlight made his eyes look like they’re glowing, adding to his somewhat scary look.  The female just watched him for a moment and then went back to eating.

A Few for Friday

The end is getting nearer at school–only 10 more days to go for the students, just a few more than that for teachers. I took just a few photos this afternoon when I got home.

Red-headed brown anole on a fence post.

Another brown anole on a fence rail.

 

And my faithful companion Sophie–well, her eye, anyway. I was sitting down and she was trying to sit in my lap.

 

Wednesday Photos

After a long day at work it’s nice to take a walk around the back yard with Sophie. There was a juvenile brown anole on the fence by the gate, one I haven’t seen before. It seemed wary of me, raising a bit of a crest down its neck and back and doing a few push-ups.

Lovebug on a leaf. We’re starting to see lovebugs around here. Lovebugs are black and red flying insects that fly around in joined-together pairs while mating. This particular bug hasn’t located a mate yet. They don’t sting or bite, but they can be annoying when there are lots of them, and they can do actual damage to cars–clogging a radiator grill, messing up a windshield or the paint on a car. Fortunately for us they aren’t usually that numerous  in our area.

Sophie looking pensive.

And Sophie looking happy.

Tuesday Photos

The transplanted tomato plant is still looking a little scraggly, but I’m hoping it will perk up and start filling out more now that it’s in the big pot. It has quite a few green cherry tomatoes on it.

A fern on one of the palm trees.

It’s always nice to see a green anole. This one was sitting on the branch by the fence that the anoles seem to like so much.

Sophie in the yard.

A Few for Monday

Azalea blossom on the little azalea bush. Normally azaleas bloom in early spring here (around March), but this bush tends to bloom at odd times.

No excitement among the anoles today. I only saw two of them in two different parts of the yard. This male brown anole was displaying on the fence, but I couldn’t spot any other anoles around to be impressed by him.

Lulu in the grass, her eyes lit up by the afternoon sun.

Sweet Sophie. I love her funny little ears, the spots on her nose, and her many expressions. She’s a very happy dog, and her favorite time of day is walking outside with me after work.

Sun and Anoles on Sunday

The rain is finally over and the sun came out today. We had blue skies and Mockingbirds singing.

Sophie was so happy to be outside with the sun shining.

A yellow leaf caught in a palm tree.

Yellow wildflowers/weeds standing out brightly in a ray of sunshine in front of some fallen palm fronds.

A fern leaf about to open on the palm tree.

I got my tomato plant transplanted into one of the big tomato pots today. The two big pots are beside each other in a sunny area, and there’s a big male brown anole that’s been hanging around that area. He seems very comfortable seeing me and the camera, so I think he must be an anole I saw a lot of last year.

This anole sat on the rim of the second pot and watched the whole transplanting procedure. He wasn’t bothered by garden tools, new soil going into the pot, digging, moving the plant, or pushing in the tomato cage–he just sat there and watched. He’s one of the most calm and curious anoles I’ve had around. Here you can see how close he was to the other pot, which now contains the tomato plant.

Over on the side of the house there were some of the tiny bright colored flies that I often see on lantana leaves. I took a photo of this one, and was amazed to see that the fly had caught and was eating an even tinier bug! The fly itself is only about 1/4 inch long. I never really thought about what the flies eat, but I didn’t expect to see one eating a bug.

There was a green anole over there, slipping quietly through the lantana branches and catching insects too.

The funniest thing I saw today was this next sequence. The red-headed male anole, the timid and skittish guy who lost the anole battle a few weeks ago, was trying to get a girl.  (Now I may be wrong and this may be a young small male anole, but it looked and behaved like a female and had a very small dewlap like a female. If the big guy reacted this way to a small male, it’s almost as funny as if it were a female.)

He spotted the female about the same time she noticed him, and they looked at each other for a moment.

He walked on by her and put on a little show for her, puffing himself up and flashing his dewlap.

She seemed interested so he turned back and approached her.

Then suddenly he  retreated and got away from her as fast as he could. She’d seemed agreeable and he’d seemed attracted, but then he just ran away from her. He does tend to get scared off easily.

He went to the top of the fence and displayed his dewlap up there.

The female sat down below looking up at him, showing her dewlap too (barely visible here).

He came back down and approached her again after awhile, but then left her again. She appeared to give up on him and left too.

Then I noticed another big brown male anole, the one with the stripes on his sides who’d won the anole battle a few weeks ago. He followed the same female into the vines on the fence.

The red-headed male ended up leaving the fence and sitting by himself on a shovel handle, looking pretty unhappy about the whole situation.

 

And Still More Rain on Saturday

This is our third straight day of rain. No opportunity for gardening and yard work yet over this 3 day weekend! I saw a male brown anole sitting on the branch by the fence in the rain today. Usually the anoles duck for shelter when it’s raining, but this guy didn’t seem to care, even with the raindrops on his head.

I saw a little Green Tree Frog nearby, but before I could take a photo the frog wiggled through the opening left by a loose lid on an empty trashcan. I lifted the lid and saw the little frog.

Also taking shelter in there was another brown anole. It was dry inside except for the raindrops that fell in while I had the lid off.

Sophie wasn’t at all happy with the weather–she hates rain.

Flowers on the table.

Anoles and Dogs on Monday

I was walking around the palm trees today when I saw a sudden quick motion out of the corner of my eye. When I turned I saw that a brown anole had leaped off the trunk of the tree to a plant down below, where it had captured a palmetto bug. It was not a long leap–the anole had started on the trunk about 2 feet above the ground and landed on a plant about a foot lower–but the prey was pretty impressive. Palmetto bugs are a large species of cockroach, an inch and a half to 2 inches long, that mostly live outdoors. This one was hanging around the palm trees where the anole grabbed it, and the anole then carried it back onto the palm tree trunk.

The anole sat in that spot for a minute, looking like it was trying to figure out what to do with this big bug. Then the anole hauled the palmetto bug off up the tree.

This larger brown anole was also on the tree trunk, poking its head out to watch me.

Sophie and Lulu were playing in the yard today while we were outside. They look pretty fierce here (especially Lulu), but they were both happy and just having fun together.

A Few for Monday

Just a few for today. This fly was sitting on a lantana leaf on the side of the house, looking colorful with its red eyes and green/gold body.

My girl Sophie. She waits for me to get home from work so we can go outside together. She wanders around a little, checking Richard’s yard next door and the space behind the shed, but mostly she stays close to me.

 

This last one was pretty sad for me–a dead juvenile anole that I found in a plastic watering can. It apparently got in there and couldn’t get back out. I’m turning over my watering cans from now on to prevent this from happening again.