Sunday, February 19, 2012

lizards. bones. and a parting moon shot.


after last weekend's FREEZE,
some critters (especially the cold-blooded ones) are thinking really hard
before they step out of their warm & safe hidey-holes.

the days have been steadily warming to the low to mid 70's (F)...
and i have spotted a few lizards lingering...soaking up the warmth...
just in case we get hit with another sudden cold spell.

they are all i've seen.  well other than a few birds and a couple of butterflies...
but this post is for the lizards.

on the front porch hand rail

on fence by the back porch

Florida's Museum of Natural History's Herpetology Dep't lists SIXTY-THREE
species of lizard in Florida.
of that 63...only TWENTY are native to florida.

a juvenile anole on the north side of the house (broom leaning)

this guy must have just changed from green to brown...
note the green around his eyes.
front porch roof

these next few shots are of a lizard on the south side of the house...
stepping out of his skin!
shedding.

he's giving me the eye.


"damn woman! can't i undress in private?!"


now he's starting to get a bit annoyed.
he would prefer to shed in peace.
solitude.
"go away. will ya'"

he tries to scare me away by displaying his dewlap
(a brightly colored flap of skin under the neck).

ok.  i go.

about this next lizard...
does anyone know how to play taps?

the lizard lament.
discovered inside an old grill

oOo

that dead lizard is my cue to move on to BoNES.
owl pellet bones.
courtesy of the Barred Owl who frequents our yard.

taken  31 Jan 2011 at 4:30pm

remember
the owl pellets i found recently?

does that jog your memory?

here are the bones after i dissected them with an x-acto knife & tweezers.

and here they are after soaking...rinsing...straining.
then repeating.

long leg bones, scapulae, rib bones, teeth...mostly from the little mole that lives underground.
so small...the bones are coughed up in an UNDER 1.5 inch pellet...mixed with fur!

~i love bones~

oOo


""Well," said Pooh, "what I like best -- " 
and then he had to stop and think. 
Because although Eating Honey was a very good thing to do, 
there was a moment just before you began to eat it 
which was better than when you were, 
but he didn't know what it was called." 
~Winnie the Pooh

oOo


moon shots from the morning of Feb 16th, 2012.



a little grainy...but still pretty cool i think...CRATERS!
(for inquiring minds: my camera is nothing fancy. a Canon Powershot SX120)

oOo


"Let nature take you on its journey."
~Jamake Highwater 


stay cool & be safe.
laura

NOTE ON WORD VERIFICATION
maybe you've noticed the DOUBLE words...
all scrambled...with shading and lines running through them.
yikes!
it makes commenting really difficult.
if you use them...maybe try doing without.
i haven't had word verification for over a year and only ONCE or twice
have i had to delete a 'spammy' comment.
with this new double word format, it's very frustrating.
annoying.
time consuming.
you might even notice less comments on your blog.

anyway...please consider it.  :)



26 comments:

  1. Hi Laura, Cool lizards and great shots too. I love the barred owl, always neat to see an owl. Beautiful capture of the moon and the craters. I always enjoy coming here to see your wonderful nature post. Have a Happy Sunday!

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  2. Not too keen on lizards but owls fascinate me and I love the moon shots. I have a "thing" about the moon. With you on the capchas by the way...I detest them.

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  3. Great post with great pics! Love the bones and Pooh quote! How A.A. Milne told those stories is one of my biggest jealousies!

    Take care -

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  4. yes those word verifications are a real pain .....i cant read them at all ....love the lizard pics and the craters on the moon incredible...x

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  5. love the moon and the lizards! How amazing to have an owl in your back yard! I caught a glimpse of a falcon yesterday disappearing into a neighbour's hedge - maybe peregrine - but was just to fast for me and vanished over the fence and flew away low across the field.
    No frustrating word verification Hurrah!

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  6. thanks for the anti word ver shout-out!!! AMEN!

    your love of bones is so cool! and i loved all your anoles and lizards. :)

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  7. Oh, my, the "half naked" lizard is so cute. I totally agree about teh word verification. Even when they are easy to read, it is annoying and time consuming...when I can't read them...I just skip commenting. It isn't worth trying three or four times to get the word verification right.

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  8. thanks for peeking in at the lizards and the moon!

    thanks for all the kind words and i guess we can all agree on the word verification! yay!

    happy sunday...or monday...depending on where u live! :)

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  9. Hi Laura...I do so enjoy your post ...never a dull moment in one LOL...
    Shedding lizards, disseted scat washed bones I have not seen elsewhere!!lol you are your own person : }

    About word verfication ..I will continue to keep mine, and if you don't come by no hard feelings ..I just know about the fake blogs that are not "people" but "computer programs" that can not be detected as spam...it isn't a person so it cannot read the 2 word jumble thus keeping it from getting your personal info. Google Chapcha or Why have word verfication!! I'm sorry ,but it is like texting and driving it is the risk you take!!
    Love Ya
    Grace

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  10. Oh-oh-oh--lizard love over here! I had anoles when I was young and they are just so darn cute!!! I love the disgruntled stripper trying to face you off! I can just imagine his head bobbing.

    Wow! All the teeny, tiny bones you got from the owl pellet! So delicate and white after you cleaned them all up. Neat!

    Your Cannon Powershot is much better than my SD700 IS. I posted a close up of the moon, too...as close as I could get it...which was still a long distance shot. Your picture is amazing!! Love it. Wow!

    I hate the new double word mystery verification! I plan to post on it, too. I'm having a terrible time and don't know how long I can keep up with blogs that have it. Driving my weak eyes bonkers! Glad to see people speaking up about it.

    Have a fabulous week!!! Give Milo a neck scratch for me. :)

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  11. Oh, look at those tiny little rib bones in the owl pellet. How fascinating!

    The new word verification is driving me dotty. I've tried the sound version, but I end up yelling at the disembodied voice on the computer. Makes me feel a bit like Homer Simpson shouting at the television.

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  12. I,too, have noticed the weird word verification thing. I had changed mine to instant post, but, found I have to be sure and check for messages and comments on my blogs, and it kind of threw me off. It doesn't come to my email that I have a message. So I changed it back. May have to reconsider. It is annoying!

    But, I liked the lizzard revue...I didn't realize they shed their skin. And I can't believe he let you get away with as much as you got. Cool pics! Hope you're doing good, Laura. Have a great week!

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  13. Now these little critters I can deal with. In fact, I love watching them. You did a great job on those teeny, tiny chucks of calcium by the way!...:)JP

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  14. Laura, nice post. I love lizards and we used to have an anole as a pet when my kids were young. I miss seeing them all them time like I did when we lived in AZ.

    And Bravo for you speaking up about word verification. I hate it also and I agree with you!

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  15. That lizard IS giving you the eye!! I feel just like that in the mornings before coffee, I hate to be looked at!

    Love the tiny bones, they are so pretty when they're cleaned up.

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  16. thanks again ALL! let's see...who asked a question...or needs a comment back...

    grammie/grace...IF you want to think about not having the word verification, i'm pretty sure you can turn that off and use the 'moderator' instead...where the comments would get emailed to you for approval before they're posted. if you look at RunA Round Ranch Report...she did a post on it a few days ago & explained how to go around it! i still plan to visit & comment at blogs that have the verification...

    rita, my canon is a little newer than yours. i think yours has a 4x zoom, mine has a 10x plus more pixels. my DREAM camera would be one with interchangeable lenses...ahhhhh, some day!

    Snail & Truck Tumble!! YEAH!! i LOVE the tiny little bones from the pellet!! they are the coolest!!

    Susan...take a look at the Run A Round Ranch report's post on the verification thing...she explains some options...Love the lizards too! and they sure do shed!!

    JP and Kathie...again, YEP! LOVE the lizards. i was raised in NY where we kids had them as pets. they'd escape & we'd find them weeks later...dead...behind the couch or where ever. boys used to dangle them from their ear lobes! the little lizards would bite & hang on!

    anyway...thanks everyone!! see ya!laura

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  17. I love the pictures of the Lizards, beautiful. And, I love your poster of the word verification, nice work.

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  18. Lots of excellent shots here! Love your Barred Owl. What a cool shot! The pellets are neat but maybe I shouldn't be looking at them before dinner time.:)

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  19. I love those little lizards. The owl pellets are the best--fascinating how many tiny, tiny bones are in them.

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  20. Yes I dislike the word verification. I believe mines is turned off.
    Thanks for the pretty comment.

    I just love, love, love the pictures you take because they show me and others how very creative and intricate God is.

    God bless you Laurita! Hugs~

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  21. Hey, Laura! Sorry I'm late to the party. I haven't been on too much because of the remodeling upheaval around here. But I also noticed the highly annoying double word verification from Hell that has started appearing on some of the blogs I read, and your post (and sidebar disclaimer) made me realize that, (d'oh) I had it on my blog too! But I just took mine off, and I'm going to see how it goes with just comment moderation.

    And while we're on the subject of blog comments, did you know there's a new-ish feature that lets you reply to individual comments? You would need to switch your comment settings from the pop-up window to embedded, and then I think the feature is enabled. Thought you might be interested, since you often reply to your commenters.

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  22. It's been a while since I've visited... slowly getting back into the blogging way of life :D)
    Love your header Laura. Also, appreciate your comments re word verification, it's such a turn-off to commenting.

    Your lizard pics are lovely - such different little creatures to what we have over here.

    Beaut to catch up with you again. Till later, Cheerio, Susan xx

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  23. thanks everybody for leaving your comments!!

    Rohrerbot, ha! well, at least the bones didn't have any meat on them...

    Bob, bunnits, maleeka...thanks for your kind words! :)

    Cindy, thanks to you too...and also for mentioning the new comment formatting...maybe i'll give it a try...i used to have the embedded kind of comments but for some reason a couple of people mentioned they had problems with it...BUT that was when i first started my blog...things have changed a lot since then...thanks!

    Susan, good to have you back in blogland!! i have catching up to do also...as always! time just slips away...way too quickly!

    thanks ALL for stopping by! :)

    xo
    laura

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  24. As always...pure joy in your post!

    My son used to have an iguana that got
    SO
    V E R Y
    V E R Y
    B I G.

    Love the lizard pics!

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  25. Love your new look blog, Laura and LOVED this post...as much as I love every single one you publish! You are such an artist...an innately intuitive naturalist...a natural born teacher...quite a remarkable woman :) You see things most of us wouldn't look at once, let alone twice. Your inquiring mind and perceptive nature are an inspiration to all. I honestly believe you and Sam have discovered the secret to real happiness and lasting contentment.

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  26. Love the lizards! I am a lizard fan I have to say, although spiders still top my list.

    Great photos as usual and yes, I agree with you on the word verification. The problem is that you write up your comment, press publish or post or whatever, and then it brings up the screen with the WV. It has happened (especially on new sites that I start following or ones that don't post as often) that I just press the little x to close the tab, only to see the WV come up to late. And by then I have written something even longer than this comment on your post :) and have no intention of retyping anything.

    So yes, please people: If you would like to have control, then perhaps opt for approving comments rather than the comments becoming available immediately, but like Laura says, you always have the authority to delete anything.

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thanks for stopping by! it's always nice to hear from fellow wanderers!