This insect was on the screen of my porch. The fact that it was just there untouched by the lizard stroke me as interesting. Even though this insect looks very much like the Blister Beetle (which secretes a toxin comparable to cyanide), it is in fact very different from it. When it is in the larvae phase, it is a vicious carnivorous insect which searches for other insects to devour; this is very beneficial for your trees and plants since it gets rid of other insects that might harm them. When it graduates to an adult, it becomes a loving nectar and pollen insect; it stores the energy from these sugary foods to spend in its hard-earned lovemaking sessions. You can read an interesting article about the Soldier Beetle in this article by the Chicago Wilderness Magazine.

This lizard has been living on my bonsai trees for at least 3 months now. It and I (or my trees) have a truly symbiotic relationship; it is happy to be inside the screen of my porch where birds cannot get to it, and in exchange it eats all the little bugs that get through the screen and could potentially hurt my bonsai trees (not to mention its Zoolander style posing for the picture in this website). I wondered how much longer this honeymoon would last, and found that these creatures can live up to 4 to but have been known to live for 8 years in captivity (I'm hoping that I live longer than the lizard). As a point of reference, the longest mice live in captivity is around 4 years which is a big stretch from their lifespan measured in months when in the wild (read more about lifespan of animals from this article). The lizard is shown close to a black olive bonsai. It might not be a coincidence that both the tree and the lizard are natives of the Bahamas, hence the lizards affinity for this tree. And, according to Wikipedia, this "anole" is a she because of the light stripe on "her" back.

This insect is not a mosquito, but actually a fly (crane fly). In fact, they are also called mosquito eaters... but the truth is that these insects do not eat mosquitoes. As annoying as they are when they lay close to your front door only waiting for you to open it and enter into your home, they are harmless since they do not bite humans or any other mammals either, they eat nectar out of flowers. You can read more about Crane Flies from using this link to Wikipedia.

This is the largest alligator I've seen in my backyard; it must be just about 7 feet long, although my neighbor says it is 5 feet. In this occasion, the gator looked really guilty, so I took my camera with tripod out and set an automatic timer to photograph it. As I started the trigger the reptile "jumped" out of the water and stopped about 8 feet from the camera, just staring at it. This truly scared me... you can say this alligator wasn't camera shy or scared of humans at all; by the time I decided to call animal control, it was already Sunday, and it seems animal control at least here in Tampa, Florida, only works office hours. To the left is the gator before it bursted out of the water, and the gator looking at the camera on the right of the image.

This interesting creature was crossing the street that leads to my home on a very hot summer day (June2005). It was stuck trying to go from the pavement to the sidewalk. As soon as I saw it, I went to to my home and got thick gardening gloves and my camera of course. The decision to get the gloves was a very wise one since once I grabbed this turtle, unlike normal turtles, it extended its legs and long -sharp- claws and scratched my gloves very very hard, so much that it slightly scratched my forearms (this type of turtle is very different from common turtles in that it is very aggressive), be careful if you decide to get this close to one. While the shell is supposed to be "soft", it didn't deform at all when I grabbed this amphibian. You can read more about these creatures from the Smithsonian Institution.

Sandhill Cranes like to be fed by you, if any comes by your backyard and you feed it once, they will keep coming and will make some really loud and noisy begging for food. An interesting paradigm is that if you give them chicken, they will eat it (as a disclaimer I only know somebody that did it). I love these birds and the fact that they will let you get close and are not camera shy. Anyways, about a year ago I find a group of three (mother, father, and baby) of these cranes outside McDonald's as I was leaving with my Chicken sandwich combo with fries. Outside the main door of the restaurant I saw this group of birds, so I decided to give them a couple of fries... I naturally started with the young one. As I was giving the second fry to the younger bird, the biggest bird started hissing aggressively at me, basically demanding all the fries (and maybe the chicken sandwich too). I give it a couple, and it still persists and got more aggresive. At this point, I was already weighting my options on how to get into my car and eat my fries in peace. This bird was so aggressive that one of my defensive options was to kick it... but, as I turn around and look into McDonald's I see about two really young children looking at the show. Can you imagine the p.sychological implications for these children if they had seen me give the boot to this beautiful creature of God? My solution in this case was to give one fry at a time to the bird while walking back to my car without turning my back to the bird.

I took this picture this June (2006) in the pond in my backyard. It turns out that while the dove in the left of the picture was trying to feed on the bird seeds my neighbor puts on the grass, this little gator sneaked in. The dove was aware of my presence while I was trying to take this picture, and my only worry besides taking the picture was that the gator would take advantage to jump into action and secure the meal. Fortunately for the dove, it lived beyond this episode since it flew away when the gator jumped out of the water.