Persistence

Two days ago, on the dog walk, Syd stomped this plant flat to the ground. Because he knew what would happen.

And it did.

The beetle and the bird

I doubt they were there at the same time.

Melting tree?

Big snake in the road

This critter appeared today, crossing our sometimes-very-busy street. When I stomped my foot behind him to encourage him to move, he instead raised his head like a cobra. But then he resumed his way across the street and into the ditch. I stood guard in case yet another delivery truck came along for the mini-market next door.

It’s called Culebra de Peñarol, because that futbol team’s colors are black and yellow.

Its scientific name is Liophis poecilogyrus sublineatus. It grows to about 70 cm in length, and this one was about that. It lives in every departamento in Uruguay, and is not endangered in any way, though this individual was for a couple of minutes.

Is it poisonous? you ask. I don´t know. Maybe we should eat one to find out? Oh, you mean venemous? It is not listed as one of the four dangerous species of snakes in Uruguay. However, I did run across an account of someone who got bitten by one.

You can read about the incident here if you care.

TL;DR: you probably don’t want to get bitten by one.

Brilliant yellow flowers

Trying to see if I can capture the brilliance of these flowers on an overcast day without going crazy with Pixlr filters. Result: not really.

Flowers and shadows

Flowers in the afternoon sun, on the dog walk.

Tero babies

I spent an hour and a half in the park yesterday watering thirsty young trees. And yet today I see for the first time that the teros have two babies – checking out the main path that crosses from one side to the other. We stopped here, before mama and papa decided to make a fuss!

Dead possum-how?

A dead comedreja (possum) in an area on the side of the house fenced against dog entrance, except that Bandido the Shi Tzuh gets in through an opening I left for the cat (now long gone). The compost bins are on the other side of the fence, so what this one was doing here is a mystery, as is, once again, how it died. I don’t think the little dog would have done it in.

Springing to life again

I cut open a squash, itself from a volunteer plant, to discover it starting all over again.

The next day, an equally enthusiastic onion.

Must be spring.

A hawk lost its lunch?

On the dog walk yesterday, there was suddenly a flurry of interest by the dogs, but no grabbing, chewing, or rolling. Just a fresh, disemboweled chicken carcass in the middle of nowhere. Syd thought I should show its location with a map photo, but no, trust me. Middle. Of. Nowhere.

Best guess is that it became a raptor feast.