Animals In My Backyard: 2008

Monday, September 1, 2008

Apple Snail

This is an Apple Snail I found at a pond in Boca, while collecting empty snail shells. This beasty is about 6.5" in diameter.

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Baby Inchworm

I found this baby inchworm hanging upside down from a playground at a nature trail.

Growing Inchworm

We think this is the same inchworm that we found on a nature trail and brought home to live in our yard. You can see he's growing very well.

Cicada

As I was climbing a tree, I spotted this cicada just having emerged from its old exoskeleton. The cicada's "humming" can be heard from up to two miles away.

Thursday, June 26, 2008

On the road to babies...

These green anoles were mating on our window screen.

Treefrog

I was playing outside when I saw a treefrog that looked like it swallowed a balloon. I think he was trying to scare me away.

Dragonfly Up-Close

I caught this while I was eating at Busch Gardens.

Paper Wasp Building Nest

We saw these wasp parents tending to their little wasp eggs in a bush in our yard.

My dad found this while letting the dog out one night. I got my net and captured this beetle and took it to my laboratory (aka, my back porch). It flew out of my net and landed on the floor, so I quickly slammed the bug habitat over it. Next morning, it was trying to eat a hole through the screen mesh of the container. With no thought of losing my fingers to this beasty (well...maybe I gave it a little thought), I thrust my hand in and pulled it out. During the photo session, it slipped out of my hand and we couldn't find it. The next thing I knew it was crawling up my pants. I brushed it off and it flew at my face; but I caught it again, took a few more photos, and then released it.