Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Water, water, every where

Hurricane Season has arrived and with it came the rain. So much rain that we yummy mummies in our 4x4s look entirely practical ploughing through the puddles to get the kids from school. While it is not great for moths, the rain is drawing many other creatures out of hiding. Happy families of snails line our driveway and we are beset by mosquitoes - as big and black as houseflies - which audibly pop and leave great red spatter marks when you swat them.

The Cuban tree frogs are in song and the land crabs are using this time to migrate. Fat crabs, thin crabs, hairy crabs and smooth crabs. Orange crabs, yellow crabs, pink crabs and blue crabs  Some of the braver ones have made their way into our garden, past our crab-crazed dog.  Many of the faster crabs made it all the way to the other side.

I have to wonder what effect the development of the land is having on the crab population - certainly there are still plenty of them but surely the houses, fences, cars and pets are making their migration ever more precarious? People are a direct threat too - apparently they are good eating, if you keep them in a bin and feed them mangoes for a while before you cook them up!

Perhaps the least desirable effect of the rain is that it has driven a couple of scorpions under our front door in their search for shelter. I'm not overly happy about playing scorpion hide-and-seek until this weather improves...

So, no mothing but a few nice creature pics to share: