The Girls Have Settled

The Girls Sit On An Amazon Box  

A temporary solution to setting up the girls. Since we don't have any large pots, I'm not sure what I will do for the long term. Immediately turtle William and cat Annie came over to check out the newcomers. Always looking for food.

Spider On Underside of Flamingo  

Before I set them up, I discovered a hitchhiker from the old house: a spider guarding her eggs. The balcony is screened, so I decided the best course would be to let her go in the bushes next to the parking lot. She can lay more eggs. After checking with my entomologist friend, I learned she was probably a brown widow spider, introduced from South Africa and now introduced to our parking lot by me. Unintended consequences reign. One more in a series of humans thinking they were doing good when they introduce a new specie to an area, and yet, it turned out to be a bad idea. Maybe one of the mocking birds will eat her. 

Introduced plants and animals are everywhere. The village of Key Biscayne is planted in what Grant calls resort landscaping with lots of palms and flowering plants in lush, well-tended beds. Everything is neatly pruned, swept and mowed by city employees who always turn off the blowers or mowers when I walk by. They are unfailingly friendly when I greet them. 

Even with all their work, a few unplanned natives have sneaked in. I walked to the post office today and noticed whisk fern, (psilotum nudum) growing in some sable palm boots. There is ball air plant (Tislandsia sp) on tree trunks. Some ferns growing in cracks of rock walls. I will look at them more closely next time I walk by.

The rest of the key is pretty much native habitat with Crandon Park on the north side and Bill Baggs State Park on the southern end. When I was a child, Crandon Park Zoo, predecessor of Zoo Miami was located on the key, and I remember mostly Australian pines (Casuarina sp), although I may have that mixed up with Hollywood Beach. We came over one time to go to the zoo, and we got to hold and feed newborn lions. Really.

We plan to ride our bikes to both Crandon Park and Bill Baggs this weekend. Perhaps I will see flamingos on the mud flats. In recent years more and more have been spotted in Florida, and researchers now think there may have been a native population rather than just escapees from Hialeah Race Track. The girls would be pleased.