herpetology – The Bald Heretic – Short, bald dude with a goofy beard

Florida Lizard II

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There have been some requests *cough*cynthia*cough* for more duck parade photos.
Perhaps tomorrow I will be able to sneak away and get a few more.

In the meantime, FLORIDA LIZARD MACROS!

Florida Lizard

The lizards here are quite cool. Very shy, though. I shot this with the 300mm fully extended.

Lizardo – portrait macros

Here are a few more in a bit larger, portrait format.
Best viewed at full size…

Click for full size

Lizardo – King of our yard-o

I spotted Lizardo as he was leaping onto a palm frond in the front garden. It’s the first sighting of him since acquiring the new camera. I quickly affixed the Tamron AF 28-75mm f2.8 XR Di in the hopes of getting a macro shot of the big fella.

Oddly enough, he did not retreat as I moved toward him and took aim. In fact at one point he started to move toward the camera. I supsect he saw his reflecting in the lens and perhaps saw it as a rival lizard trespassing on his domain.

Whatever the reason, he allowed me to get quite close.

Click for full size

Insert “snakes on a plane” joke here

As I have mentioned before, I have quite the fascination with snakes. I have owned them and I consider myself quite knowledgeable on the subject and even considered pursuing a career in herpetology once upon a time.

Cynthia, on the other hand, has an understandable fear of snakes. She will watch in horror as that Australian nut job “The Crocodile Hunter” pulls the tail of of a Mamba or some other poisonous snake in one of his cable shows.

I recently learned of the Houston Zoo’s Walk on the Wild Side Tour – Texas Snakes event from my friend Wyndi and commented on how cool that might be to attend. Wyndi asked if I would be joining her and her sister as she had made reservations. I kind of dismissed the notion and said I would mention it to Cynthia but I did not expect that she would want to put herself in a position to be around snakes in any capacity.

Imagine my surprise when Cynthia expressed an interest in attending the event.

I went online and made the reservations. The event was this past Saturday and Cynthia had a blast. The transformation from fear to fascination was remarkable. She even held a snake for the first time in her life and didn’t freak out one bit.

I doubt we’re any closer to being able to keep a snake in the house, but Cynthia has come a long way and does not exhibit the same repulsion she did previously and that’s pretty remarkable in my book.

Here be dragons

Lot’s of hard work is paying off. The yard is looking really good this year.

We have the feeders out and the bird activity is really quite impressive.

We have the usual flock of sparrows that raid periodically along with the morning doves that wait on the ground for whatever might fall their way. I’m still waiting to get a picture of our mated pair of cardinals that have been around every year since I can remember. Cynthia named them Ricky and Lucy. The baby cardinal last year was named Jethro for his clumsiness.
The baby this year has only been spotted once and is, as yet, unnamed.

Of particular delight to Cynthia is the fact that we finally came up with a feeder that is squirrel proof. Not that the neighborhood squirrels aren’t trying. In fact, that is what amuses Cynthia the most. She laughs and laughs as the squirrels climb everything they can find in the backyard looking for a way to access the tasty feed that hangs so close, yet so far out of reach.

I had my first spotting of Lizardo this season. He was on the garage and really putting on a show. I think there’s another male lizard in vicinity and Lizardo was staking his claim to the garage and surrounding flower beds.

Late Saturday afternoon Cynthia and I were just sitting on the swing watching all the activity when a butterfly landed on her knee. It would fly away and land on the nearby bricks and then fly back and land on her knee again. It repeated this a dozen or so times.

Right now it’s still pleasant but you can tell it’s going to be a hot summer. We’re enjoying it while we can.