Puerto Rican Ground Lizard

Ever since I started my job here in the BVI, I have been desperate to do a post about these lizards. They're everywhere on the property here, and in my head, I refer to them as "dinosaur lizards", probably due to the way they look like mini-Godzillas to me. They're extremely shy though, so I never managed to really get a picture of one before, but finally, yesterday, there was a slow-moving male outside the office and I was able to grab my camera and snap a few shots.

My favorite thing about the dinosaur lizards is how multi-colored they are in the sun. The sides of the males, especially, are adorned with blue and green spots, but vibrate in the sun, giving them a rainbow-sided look. 






Of course, they aren't really dinosaur lizards. They are, in fact, Puerto Rican Ground Lizards, or some close relative thereof. They are a type of ameiva, and I haven't been able to find much information on them. The El Yunque link indicates that these guys only grow to about 8 inches from snout to vent, but I have definitely seen larger specimens than that here.

King of the Lizards

Another weekend in St. John, another iguana sighting. I see them fairly frequently in Tortola, especially running around the hotel property, but never have a chance to take pictures of them. This guy was just sunning himself in the roadway and HB snapped a photo for me.

Tortolan Deer

There are rumors going around that we now have deer on Tortola. I have heard a few folks say that they've spotted deer in and around the Sage Mountain area, and a few boaters have said they've seen the deer that live on St. John swimming the mile-wide channel that separates that island from Tortola.

For my part, I'm dubious. 

It is not uncommon while driving up Windy Hill to have a faun-colored creature, about the same size as the St. John deer, dash in front of you, and cause you to think, "oh look, a deer!" only to be revealed on closer inspection to be an creature of an entirely different Order:

I think the rumored spottings of deer on Tortola are in fact spottings of Tortolan Deer -- also known as goats.

Anegada Miscellany

Just a few final pictures from our trip to Anegada last week.

First, the lovely views as we came in to dock near the Anegada Reef Hotel

Cedars scattered along the beach reminded me of Longboat Key in Florida, and also provided the only significant interruption to the otherwise flat horizon line.

We get waders like great egrets and blue herons on Tortola often enough, but shorebirds like these plover (maybe killdeer?) are fairly uncommon on Tortola.

Naked Snail

The dogs must be used to snails, as they see them pretty much every day, or they don't put out much smell -- either way, the rash of shelled gastropods are of no interest to Flash and Roscoe. Not so this slug, one of the first I've seen in the BVI. Roscoe made a beeline to it on Sunday morning, sniffing and nosing and pestering. I shooed him away so I could get a picture, and then caught him harassing another slug further along the garden wall. The second one didn't fair so well, as it lost its grip and fell before I could interfere.

Enquiring Equine

On Sunday, HB and I went to wrangle our recent vehicular purchase out of the bush it had been dwelling in for eight months. There was someone else in the lot who was curious about our activities, and came over to check us out.

When I approached him with the camera, this gentleman moseyed right up and snuffled my hand, but I grew a little nervous at his hefty hooves around my flip-flopped feet, and he grew a little nervous at all the noise as HB started up our new car.

Sanctuary

Near Josiah's Bay, there is a salt pond, and an estuary between the pond and the ocean, which creates an ideal environment for shore and marsh birds. It also creates an ideal environment for the BVI Bird Watching Sanctuary, located just across the estuary from the beach. When I was in the area in November, there were a few great egrets, and a great blue heron hiding in the shade.

Boobies!

These brown specimens are not my favorite boobies in the world (those would be the blue-footed type) but I still love that their prevalence in the BVI gives me an excuse to say "boobies!" on a regular basis. Because I'm still eight years old.

Goat King

For months and months, every time HB and I would drive to Brewer's Bay beach down the western road, we would see this enormous billy goat, the size of a bighorn sheep, with horns to match -- a veritable goat king. In fact, he's so large, that the first time I saw him, I thought he was a donkey. It seemed like I never had a camera on my way to the beach, so one day, after work, I resolved to get photos of him. I drove the same direction as always, but the goat king wasn't there. I haven't seen him since.

These goats that were on the Brewer's Bay west road the other day are members of his tribe, but even the sizeable billy on the mountainside there is nowhere near the majesty of the goat king.

Pearly-eyed Thrasher

Image Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons and Dick Daniels (carolinabirds.org)

Living in Florida and Caribbean has made me a bigger fan of birds than I used to be. Egrets, herons, pelicans and hummingbirds all rate well with me. But there is one Caribbean species that could topple the entire avian class into my "hate" column.

Pearly-eyed Thrashers are greedy, aggressive, opportunistic little buggers with loud calls. They compete handily not only with other birds but also with many amphibian and reptile species. Their aggressiveness makes them fairly fearless, even with regard to humans. I've seen Pearly-eyed Thrashers steal food from the plates of restaurant diners and shooing them away from the hotel bar is an exercise in futility, as they stare at you menacingly until you're close enough to touch them.

Aside from their imperturbability, Thrashers also have an ear-piercingly loud, sharp call, making them impossible to ignore when they're within 100 feet. So bothersome are they, that even though it is the height of thrasher season in the BVI, I haven't been able to find one, fearless example to photograph in the last few days, as though they've been intentionally hiding from my attempts at documentation, forcing me to make do with the borrowed image above.

Bane

Behold, the disturber of my sleep, the haunter of my nightmares

Our formerly peaceful garden has been invaded by a rooster and his harem of chickens. Each morning they gather to eat the tasty insects found in the well-cultivated soil.

They chatter and cluck and drive Roscoe mad as he paces the deck, trapped, unable to hunt them down, ferret them out, get them out of the garden. Thankfully, touch wood, the rooster does not seem especially inclined to crowing, but the fear is in me nonetheless.

As I left the house this morning only to see six or seven chickens scatter at my step, I vowed to become their bane ... or perhaps to just let Roscoe loose in the garden the next few mornings.

Redundancy

I will never get enough pelican pictures to satisfy myself, so I'm afraid you'll have to bear with the redundancy as I post new ones every few months. These are from my walk in Brewer's Bay while HB was away in January.

Always a little bizarre to me to see Pelicans perching in trees. Even though I know they only weigh 4-6 pounds, it seems like this spindly manchineel should barely be able to support a full-grown pelican.

Browsing

I think moving to Tortola has changed the hierarchy of my favorite animals.

Goats, like these browsing across the street from Islands Department store yesterday, have definitely moved their way rather far up the list.

Close Crop

For the Tortolan homeowner who is just too busy to tend to the lawn herself, there's always hired help.

Pelican Season

Although brown pelicans call the BVI home year-round, there is a definite sharp increase in the pelican population in winter. Starting around mid-November, the beaches and bays become crowded with pelicans pursuing the running fry.

As I drove through Carrot Bay this morning, there were a large number enjoying the mild surf and views of Jost van Dyke. The 25 or so pictured above are just a small sampling of the congregated seabirds.

Trying to capture their synchronized diving is perhaps a fool's errand. I could have spent all morning sitting on the seawall watching their antics.

Little Lamb

Sometimes driving and taking pictures doesn't mix. I was trying to get a photo of the tiny lamb, but the traffic behind me had other ideas. I thought about cropping and 'shopping, but in the end, I think this provides a pretty nice perspective on Tortola, and on my theoretical "creative process".

Red Bug

HB called me on Christmas Eve morning to ask if I wanted lobster for dinner. His coworker's brother-in-law had been out fishing, and apparently had quite a fine catch. I was hesitant to assent, as I didn't really know if I could handle dispatching the lobster myself. When the brother-in-law offered to cook it and deliver it to HB at work, though, it looked like we were having lobster for Christmas Eve dinner.

It wasn't until we got home and fished the fellow out of his delivery bag that we fully appreciated how many days in a row we would probably having lobster for dinner.

But what a lot of delicious lobster rolls he made. 

Kestrel

We've been seeing a kestrel around our house for months now, but can never manage to get the camera trained on it before it flits off to a new perch.

The other night, we were driving home at sunset, and as we passed a house along our road, the kestrel lit on the sign. 

A happy perch for our kestrel friend. 

Hitchhiker

Even anoles have to get around somehow.

Virgin Islands Tree Boa

Before my parents visited last month, I tried to convince my very ophidiophobic mother that the BVI didn't have any snakes, not really. She had some concerns after having visited me in Florida, prime snake territory.

My white lie was discovered though, as lately, I've been seeing snakes everywhere, and I wasn't able to hide them all from my parents. It IS true though, that there are no poisonous snakes native to the BVI, and they are all rather small and non-threatening, like this inch-wide Virgin Islands Tree Boa I had the pleasure of running into a few mornings ago.

The Virgin Islands Tree Boa is severely endangered due to extensive habitat destruction, particularly in the US Virgin Islands. I feel fortunate that HB spotted this one on a wall near where we park the car, and am more than happy to share our garden with it.