Christmas eve, southern hemisphere — usually a scorcher here. This year, not quite. By a long shot, in fact.
Beach on unusual Christmas eve
Category: Nature
General observations, generally during dog walks
Curious parrot nest
Strange tracks in the sand
No footprints. So what was it? How did it move?
Thanks for asking, but…
…no, not a good night’s sleep. Those are fresh blood spots on the wall above the bed, from nocturnal mosquito-hunting.
The technique is to hold a flashlight parallel to the wall then move it away from and back towards the wall. The mosquitoes’ shadows give them away even when you can barely see them otherwise.
Clouds but no rain
Another whimsical blue-sky day…
…but we need rain….
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.