Armadillos/Vyötiäisiä!

One day last week on my way out of the house I saw two little armadillos on our lawn, but as soon as they noticed me, they scurried off to the bushes, and I didn't even get a picture.

But I knew they were around, so I was more ready the next time we saw them, just a few days ago.



Armed with my long lens for keeping a safe distance I zoomed in and kept clicking. At some point they noticed us, but must have realized we weren't going to bother them, so they kept digging for grubs and worms.



At first we thought there were only two of them, but a third one appeared, too. Adult armadillos grow to be about a size of a cat. These were definitely young ones.



They were so neat to watch. And of course we had to google Florida armadillos, and found out some extraordinary things.

Mama Armadillo gives birth to identical armadillos every time. Boom.

They are almost blind, but have a very keen sense of smell.

When threatened, not only can they roll into a tight ball, but they can jump straight up into air four or five feet. Yikes!

They are not native to Florida, but can be found almost anywhere, and they can be quite the pests, digging up the lawn.

Armadillos can carry - are you ready for this - leprosy....!!!!!! Yes, I had no idea. Pretty horrible. As much as we enjoyed watching our little visitors, they can go away now.

To read more, click here.

Another Life In Florida experience!

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Meillä oli taas erikoisia vierailijoita pihassa!! Vyötiäisiä. Täältä voi lukea lisää. Niin mielenkiintoista kun olikin seurata heitä, vyötiäiset levittävät lepraa, eli spitaalitautia. Riski on pieni, etenkin jos emme käsittele (tai kokkaa/syö! heh), eli en ole kovin huolissani, mutta saisivat kyllä löytää uuden asuinalueen, varsinkin kun sain nämä kuvat otettua, heh heh. Mielenkiintoista oli oppia, että vyötiäisemo saa aina neloset! Me ei nähty neljättä, eikä mammaa, ehkäpä he olivat viettämässä laatuaikaa kahdestaan ;-)

Elämää Floridassa!

Life In Florida/Elämää Floridassa

For a gal who grew up in Finland, and then lived in New England for years and years, life in Florida continues to delight and freak out surprise. For the most part I/we really enjoy seeing the wild life around us, and as homeschoolers we take these opportunities to find out more about what we see.

Having baby raccoons at our Fort Desoto campsite was such an exotic experience (if I find the post, I'll link it later), and we love spotting manatees (and swimming with them!), turtles and dolphins. Seeing the sick whale washed up in Madeira Beach was sobering, yet an interesting experience - first time for me to see a whale!

Seeing snakes on our second floor deck was not a delightful discovery, at all. There will be no pictures of those creatures on our blog (and not of big hairy eight-legged creatures either, thank you very much). And yes, there have been more than one snake. Shudder. But apparently they are the good kind, locals tell me.

Anyway, let's move on. I'd rather post a cute picture of Mei Mei on the deck.



A week ago Little Miss was collection recycling and trash from the garage, when something made her jump. She quickly got Mr A to help investigate (and when I heard the commotion I showed up with my camera and long lens - of course - I knew I probably wouldn't want to get too close to whatever was in the garage.)



It was a crab! And not a small one either. Little Miss and Mr A decided to rescue it. It took quite a bit of coaxing and work to catch this creature, but they did it!



I followed my two crazy, brave kids to the river where they had decided to release the crab.



Happy crab. Happy kids. Happy mama.

There will be a part two to this post - we got to see yet something new yesterday in our yard.

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Suomalaisena, joka asui vuosikausia Uudessa Englannissa (Usan koillisosaa), elämä täällä Floridassa jaksaa kiehtoa ja kauhistuttaa. Kaikenlaisia eksoottisia otuksia on tullut nähtyä, eilenkin jotain uutta, josta seuraavaksi tulee blogiin kuvia. Mutta tämä rapu löytyi autotallistamme viime viikolla, ja rohkeat Mr A ja Pikkuneiti kävivät sen pyydystämässä ja päästämäss vapaaksi. Hullut ja rohkeat:) Minä seurasin kameran ja pitkän objektiivin kanssa, heh:)