Found this guy in the shower stall by our pool one evening. We stared at its enormity for a minute or two before Nick made a grab for it. We almost got away, but Nick was able to nab him before he hopped into the bushes. We then brought him in for his photo debut.
One day George and I were working in the house when we heard a loud bang at the glass door. We peered over and there was this little bird, flopping around on the ground very disoriented indeed. He arduously get himself upright, but still didn't seem quite right. He moved about strangely, his head tilting backward at one point much further than we thought possible, though perhaps birds just have a very flexible spine? Then he just sort of looked around, though didn't seem at all interested in leaving.
We came out the door, and George started nudging him with a broom. For some reason the bird was not flying away. Finally after some tougher nudging we got him to fly, only to watch him hit the ceiling of the porch and then somewhat oddly perch sideways on one of the support beams.
Got some pictures before he flew off (hitting the inside of the porch ceiling again on the way out). George and I agreed that something was odd about that bird; my guess is he was blinded. At least temporarily. He did not flee when we were literally right in front of him, and he had a bad tendency to fly into non-glass objects and perch on odd locations.
There's a stone table underneath our house, and there one day we discovered this fellow lounging about. He was fairly long, maybe a couple feet. Nick of course wanted to get real close and take some pictures of it, better than the ones George was doing, but of course all the rest of us told him not to under any circumstances. We had no idea if it was poisonous or not. Thankfully he slithered away from the house before Nick's irrational impulses landed him in the hospital. That man has to be watched at all times. Chloe I hope you know what you're getting into.
And that wasn't the only snake we saw, or at least not the only one I saw. One night prior to the run in with the green one, I was walking into town shining my flashlight in front of me and at oncoming cars to make sure they knew I was there. On a particularly dark patch of road I saw a red and black striped coral snake lying there, right in my way. It was smallish, only about a foot long, and it was facing away from me. I got as close as I dared, and got a good look at its coils before it slithered off the road into the grass. I decided to be doubly careful walking on the way back, especially on the dirt road to the house.
Later that night I was talking with a local, and he informed me that it could have been one of two snakes, one being entirely harmless, the other being highly poisonous though treatable. The only way to have been able to tell would have been to look at its stomach, which I hadn't seen. He said they're all pests around here and I should have killed it then identified it. I'll consider doing that next time I see one AND I have a machete or some very thick boots.
He also mentioned to look out for light brown snakes with a diamond pattern on the back, those things are very very lethal and basically untreatable; you get bit by one and you die. I saw one of those on the way back home, though in a roadkill condition. Further reason to be careful when walking around in the grass and at night!
Lastly, it turns out this place has got a couple toucans nearby. One day while I was studying some Spanish on the porch, I spotted one then two toucans hanging out in a tree right next to our house. Nick and I watched them for a little while, flying from limb to limb and randomly tapping the branches with their big beaks. We commented about how we were really craving Fruit Loops and then returned to our work.
Then later on that day I started hearing some very familiar and very loud bird calls. I walked back outside and confirmed my suspicion that it was one of the toucans making the racket right outside our house. Aha! So that's what's been waking us up in the early morning hours, them and the cicadas. And now we know. Toucans are noisy and like to begin the day at dawn.
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