Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Just some wildlife...

I've been having trouble with my camera in the humidity so please excuse the quality of these photographs.

Since we have been staying in our "resort" we have seen many insects and mammals that reside along side the construction that has invaded their homes. They seem to have adapted. {I need to take lessons from them}

I thought I'd post a few.



Here is a bat. Paige found it on her balcony. When I {nature photographer extraordinaire} ventured out to photograph it, it flew at me. Instantly images of Dracula and blood sucking bats clouded my brain, I ducked and screamed a rather sissy scream. I didn't know I had it in me. Later when it was secure on a wall farther away, I got this. {I know it's blurry} If you look you can make out it's teeth and face. It looked up because the gardener came around with his noisy leaf blower. The vibrations were irritating him. Perfect timing.



This praying mantis was just feet from the bat. It was bigger than my hand out stretched. Did you know they pack quite a punch into their bite?



I also have pictures of a spider that looks like a skinny tarantula with neon yellow stripes an inch up from the bottom of it's legs. It was about 6 inches in diameter. {Spiders aren't my favorite thing} This interesting thing had caught a beetle in it's web and we got to watch it attack. It was almost poetic the way he flipped it's prey around and finished it off. I'm sure the beetle wouldn't appreciate the beauty in it.



These are beautiful, the leaf cutter ants. It is baffling to see them walking across your path. I always wait for the music to start since they seem so cartoonish. {Yeah I know that's not a word but it's what you get when I'm coming down from Dayquil!} Do you wonder what they do with the pieces of leaves? They bring them back to their home and urinate on them. Didn't you know urine mixed with leaves makes a great meal? Well, it does for them. Crazy! And please don't try that at home!!!

4 comments:

Nikki said...

I had a good laugh thinking of you screaming as the bat flew towards you. You are definitely having some "interesting" experiences.

~~Nik

Kristen said...

The bat is scary!! Cool pictures:)

loubige said...

Okay....I read your blog way too late last night......I had a dream that Jon and I came to visit you along with one of my brothers--I think. (random) Anyway, we're chillin' in your backyard and that colorful crab that you showed us awhile ago in one of your posts came up to my brother and jumped on his forhead and then stung him like a scorpian. What the crap! So you calmly take it off of him and then let us know it's poisonous and proceed to do what needs to be done to stop the poison from taking effect. Pretty random. Well it was okay.

We all went and had dinner buffet style with all the other people visiting you. And you had some brother that would NOT get out of the way for the buffet to run smoothly...(another random) I have no idea what any of your brothers look like but in my dream this dude was your brother.

Oh and I felt like the biggest DUFUS b/c I didn't bring ANYTHING you needed and some other friend brought some books or some food for you (can't remember) I kept telling Jon all night..."I can't believe I forgot to bring something--I'm such a loser!!"

Anyway, there is what I can describe in my dream, you know how everthing else is sooo random in dreams it doesn't make sense to anyone else etc.

THAT was a random comment! Sorry it is so long, maybe I should have just emailed you....

Hope you are feeling better!

Unknown said...

Oh my Gosh Shawna!!!!
I have been catching up here, and oh my!!!! So neat about Paige's baptism! What an awesome experience! So glad you are all ok, and that you floated your computer out. Heavenly Father must have known that you needed communication!
I will go through our books, any level in particular that you need?