Some Critters Around The Joint

Our neighbor, Regina, has been active photographing some of the local denizens who hang around here.She was kind enough to let me post them. I thought you might find them interesting.

First up, one of the many frigate birds who keep watch over our coastline, day in and day out.

One of the Many Frigate Birds

 Next, one of our many vultures. They are very beautiful and graceful on the wing and ugly as all get out when they're walking around on the ground. They do provide a valuable service however. There's one who seems to delight in swooping low over our place, which drives Cindy just crazy each time.

One of Our Scavengers - A Vulture

This poor little gibnut was pooped out and somewhat bloody by the time Regina took its picture. It had gotten trapped inside their fence and bloodied its face and was thoroughly exhausted. They had a gate open for it to escape but it kept trying to go through the fence. Finally, just after the picture was taken, it managed to find the gate and made good its escape.

A Pooped Gibnut

One of our big boys who hang out on our canal dock, usually in the afternoons in the sun and warmest part of the day.

One of the Iguanas Hanging By the Canal

 Here's another view of the same guy. He's about four-feet long too and is just sure that he owns everything in sight.

Another Shot of This Feller

Thanks for sharing, Regina. I appreciate it.

Sunday Grab Bag

On the morning walk today down by the fisherman's pier, we had the pleasure of watching frigate birds exhibiting some of their mating ritual. Well, really all we saw was the male puffing out his throat sack and making sort of a clicking noise. Apparently that was all very interesting to a female frigate bird, as she was close by the whole time.

Male Frigate Bird Showing Throat Sack

Here's the male and female flying close together. They're easy to photograph because they stay almost motionless in the air. Just wish I'd had my good camera along.

A Mating Pair?

After the walk, I turned our girls, Cindy and Secret, loose to sleep the day away.

After breakfast, I opened up a few of the boxes we got from our shipper (Roy and Son, Ltd. Roy Pescascio). Below is two of our three fans we purchased over the Internet for our guest house. They'll be stored till we're ready for installation.

Two of Three Ceiling Fans

The other two things that we got was our new waterfall for the pool. It's a plastic contraption that will fit right up next to the pool house roof and should give us a nice even sheet fall into the pool.

Plastic Waterfall

Along with the waterfall came a debris trap that is supposed to be inserted right before the waterfall unit, as any sizable debris at all will be enough to disrupt the smooth sheet of the fall. It's probably designed more for use in a pond, but, we'll insert it anyway - just in case.

Debris Trap

Here's a couple of pictures I shot that show more or less where the new waterfall will go. The two pipes going to the ceiling will be re-routed. One controls the existing home-built waterfall (that never worked all that well) and the other controls the solar heater on the roof (yet to be installed).

Waterfall and Heater Controls

Here's where the waterfall will be placed. There's a thin-lined box up near the roof showing about where the snout of the waterfall will poke through. Right below it will be the dolphin mosaic.

Waterfall Location

Dolphin Mosaic

So, my next project could be one of two things. One - installing the waterfall and mosaic. Which also entails draining and cleaning the pool, and Two - installing the wifi external antenna, to extend the Internet to our guest house and possibly another location or two around the area.

I know Craig would like us to do that first. But, the pool is a powerful tool that is really useful during this hot weather. I would really like to get that underway and done first. On the other hand, the antenna would probably go fast. Ahhh, decisions, decisions, decisions... I didn't retire to have to make decisions.

Perhaps I'll have a beer or two and a swim and think about it.