For over a year the only armadillos in Florida I’ve
seen have been squashed flat on the road.
I know that they are around because they leave holes in our ‘yard’
(that’s back garden in UK speak) where they regularly root around overnight.
Then last week, our neighbour across the
way, ‘Stoner Santa’ (his real name is Jim, but we call him Stoner Santa because
he’s an aging hippy with white hair, big beard and a pot belly) caught an
armadillo in a bucket. He told me that
he was going to release it into the wild but showed me it first. They are funny little creatures. I was disappointed afterwards that I’d not had
the opportunity to take a photo, as I didn’t have my camera or even my cell
phone (that’s a ‘mobile’ in the UK)
with me.
But as luck would have it, this weekend my
wife and I came across four young armadillos rooting around just a few feet
from us in some local woods. I was able
to take both photos and (woohoo!) some video footage (see below).
The armadillos weren’t my only wildlife
first either. The hot Summer sun seems
to bring all the ‘critters’ (UK =
animals) out into the open and a couple of days ago I had to take a detour to
avoid a rattlesnake in the road. They
are fatter than your average snake and have a more dangerous bite. It was just around the corner from our
place. I wanted to go back and take a
snap (I had my camera with me this time) but a redneck family in a truck got
there first and were poking the snake around.
I decided to continue on my way.
***
Away from wildlife, I have been continuing
with my tennis. The team I play for are
close to winning our local league – we just needed to win 3 out of our final 5
matches. 2 of the matches were played on
Monday.
One of them was our team captain, Scott,
playing singles.
The other was Erik and Clay playing
doubles.
Unfortunately, we lost both matches(!)
That means that we now need to win all 3 of
our final matches on Saturday. Wish me luck,
as I am playing doubles that day for the team!
I love armadilloes. (Does the plural follow the usual pattern of having an "e" after the "o"?)
ReplyDeleteA few years ago I was at our local zoo with my son, and we were able to sit beside a little armadillo. For some reason, it kept trying to scuttle up the leg of my jeans, which was really funny but man those claws are sharp!
Good luck on Saturday.
The plural is "armadillos", it comes from the Spanish for "little armored one"! :-)
DeleteThey like dark places. It was unusual to see them during the day time, but the canopy made the woods pretty shady.
Love the armadillo footage. Was going to write that I liked the choice of music - very armadilloey somehow - and then got to the end of the video and saw that you'd composed it yourself! Kudos.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Iota. I used Acid Pro to make the music. You put together loops (short sound clips repeated) which isn't terribly difficult! :-)
DeleteYoutube tightened up on copyrighted music, so I generally make up my own sound tracks nowadays. :-)
Love me some armadillos. Found lots of them out and about in the woods at Hillsborough River State park. They seem almost as blind as possums but much less rabid looking.
ReplyDeletePlaying tennis in 90° is mental. Rather you than me!