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Saturday, August 2, 2008

Creatures big and small

Since I've moved to Texas, I've been lucky enough to have much more wildlife visit my back yard. I didn't get pictures of the raccoon and the little grey fox that visit me at night, but here are some other guests that come by.This pretty butterfly actually fought with a hummingbird to get the privilege of a yummy sip of nectar. I've never seen a hummingbird and butterfly "duke" it out before.



I don't mind sharing the bird food with this little guy. He's such a hoot to watch. The only problem is when one of my dogs notice him, there's no peace from either of them. She doesn't stop barking at him, and he sits high up in the treat chattering back at her.

This beautiful creature is an orb spider. This one isn't so big, but the very first one of her species that I saw was as long as my hand! It gave me the heebee jeebies at first because not only is it a big spider, but the web is really sticky. It's not "dangerous" to humans but it can leave a painful, baseball sized welt if it gets you. Thankfully I'm not speaking from experience; just what I've read.


My son left his shoes out on the back porch and found a little visitor inspecting a possible new home. Glad we informed him in time that shoes probably wouldn't work for him.


We have these cute little anole lizards all over the place. Sometimes they're bright green and display a pinkish/red throat pouch. I love having them around.


This is a Greater Roadrunner and runs through our yard on an almost daily basis. I didn't think he'd come back after we put up our perimeter fence, but he just jump/flies over it with no problem. The dogs don't bother him at all and he'll come to the bird bath in the afternoons for a nice cool drink.


I almost forgot to show you our very first INSIDE visitor. This guy was about 1 1/2" long and I found him on my office wall! It was about a week after we moved in to our brand new house. They told us we might find an occasional scorpion in the house, but I sure wasn't expecting it that soon! I know we should have just let him outside, but my hubby got him with tongs and flushed him! Since then, we've found a teeny one on the master bedroom floor (I never ever step on anything that looks like lint on the floor because it might be a scorpion or spider) and a bigger one in the garage crawling above the door the leads to the house. Who wants to move to Texas with me?




10 comments:

Pear tree cottage! said...

Well hello from Winter in Australia, I have come across from Gina's blog and anything that has the words vintage in it is a "must see" to me.

I adore your blog and am so glad I came visiting this very cold day.

Lee-ann

Anonymous said...

Thanks for visiting my blogs.

We love seeing all the visitors we get, too. But, no scorpions.

Yesteryear Embroideries said...

Hi, justloved your pictures! Texas if full of the good, the bad, the ugly and the beautiful, isn't it? Scorpions hurt so bad when you get stung by them. We have learned to dab bleach on the sting and the pain goes away. Hope you never experince one! blessings Kathleen

Cora from Hidden Riches said...

I think we have all the same wildlife here in Florida that you have, except for the roadrunner. Never saw one of those. But the spiders????? You are right! You have to watch where you are walking in the woods because they spin those webs right at eye level. I've walked into many of those sticky webs!!!!! HATE those scorpions, too! Thanks for the pictures!!!!! Cora

pam's scottieboy said...

I remember scorpions when I lived in Las Vegas as a child. ICKY critters...so I guess this means I don't want to move to Texas.

We have our share of critters right here in Florida. We look in our shoes before we put them on - just in case a little spidey is in them!

With all the rain we've been having there are creatures in our backyard that sound like bleating lambs...loud, too! Gives me the creeps...

Your other visitors are wonderful. The roadrunner is a hoot, how cool!

xxx
pam

LouAnne said...

oh my! I know all these these exist in TX but I've never seen any of them, including the lovely cardinal when I visited my daughter who lives near you. Maybe I've just had my protective blinders on, eh? I'll have to remember next visit to NOT go barefoot!

~Becca~Bluebird Rose said...

We live in the country, and enjoy lots of wildlife, but I have to tell you that spider and the scorpion gave me the heebie-jeebies! LOL!
Beautiful butterfly on the feeder..... we love watching the hummingbirds here too!
:)

Gina E. said...

Hi Patricia, I just love your wildlife pics! It is so utterly different from our Aussie wildlife, and I just adore squirrels and chipmunks. When I was in the USA 35 years ago I just couldn't stop taking photos of those little critters!

Unknown said...

We have about all the same critters except the scorpions...
we have roadrunners and mountain quail too!

Farmhouse Blessings said...

Yikes! We had scorpions in GA too and I just cringed everytime I saw one. I remember the first time we saw one in the floor, my fil thought it was one of the boys toys and picked it up. It wasn't pleasant and we never made that mistake again.

All the other creatures are just lovely!

Smiles,
Lea