I'm in a second floor office (I'm in South Florida), and I heard a sound at my window behind me. Normally, I keep my blinds closed to prevent a glare on my monitor, so I slowly opened the slats (I knew what to expect - this has happened before). A "friend" was visiting me at my office window today. The first one I saw was a little jittery, and after a few minutes, it scampered down the tree and ran across the street to a lake. But not too long afterwards, either it was back or another one showed up, and this one stayed longer and let me snap a few pics. It even turned around twice and finally climbed off my sill and up the branch a little so I could take pics of his whole body. Presenting Iggy, the Iguana:
















These guys are so prehistoric looking, and they grow pretty immense down here. They are extremely common. I was able to get some good shots so you can really see great details like its scales, the spines on its back, etc. I tried to get some with its tongue out and its neck inflated (attracting a mate?), but my timing was off trying to focus through the slats (I didn't want to raise them for fear of scaring it off).

They are prehistoric looking - all scaly and spiny. Cool pics!

Wow! He is beautiful.

wow, crazy. he looks huge. how big is he?

That's freaking awesome.
Love the pic of the back w/ all the details.

Where the h'll do you live Jurassic Park?

Seriously that is a beautiful creature and you took some great pics

Thanks guys. I live in the Boca Raton, Florida area. This guy was about 3 feet long, not too big. I was just so dang close. But some grow much bigger down here. I have some better pics of Iguanas from other encounters (without windows and slats getting in the way) - I just have to dig them out. But we have tons of other cool things that are local. Here are some other pics of stuff I've come along in work and play:


The city I live in is known as the butterfly capital of the world. We have a huge facility where you can wander through and have thousands upon thousands of different species of butterflies all around you and landing on you. Pretty wild. But I don't have to venture there to see butterflies. All I have to do is walk out my front door to see Monarch Butterfly caterpillars. Yes, I also see the butterflies, but its harder to get photos of them.







There are also tons of aphids on these plants:




Also seen in my yard, treehoppers (check out its head):




And an assassin bug (pretty dangerous):




Other things a little farther from my own front yard:








This toad was MASSIVE:




Some wacky kind of fish:




Snakes, snakes, and more snakes (including what I suspect is a poisonous water moccasin):








And watch out for the elusive but deadly tree shark:




These poor, unsuspecting guys don't know what's coming for them:




Some unusual vegetation - I believe this is a type of banana tree:




And finally, not something you see every day:




Unfortunately, I didn't see any of the creatures themselves.

Crazy stuff.
Beautiful pics.

Us FLASKers have our own naturally-occurring kaiju.
I think your wacky fish is a gar:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gar

I grew up on a lake here in Central Florida, so I also got to see things like these:
"The Alligator Snapping Turtle possesses the second strongest bite strength of any animal in the world, and can be quite aggressive when cornered. These turtles must be handled with extreme care."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alligator_Snapping_Turtle

color me totally impressed.

I think Super7 FL just got a new mascot!

I love iguanas, I used to have one when I lived in West Palm Beach. I'm love to get another one, but I'm sure it'd freak out my cats.

These photos are amazing, but my god, I cannot imagine living with all this fauna... thanks for the shots and for soldiering through living with such terrors!

amazing.

Those pictures are awesome. I get to look at squirrels outside my window...bo-ring!

One of the first things I do when traveling to another part of the country (or another country) is check out the indigenous fauna and flora. I'm always amazed by birds I don't normally see, or if I spot a lizard etc etc. Like the other day I saw a cedar waxwing on my way to the bank. I like those little private moments where you go "yeah don't see that too often". I use to constantly nag my friend in New Mexico (who was a rancher by trade) when he was in the desert if he saw a scorpion or tarantula. Sadly he said he never sees many tarantulas at all.

Great pics!

That snapping turtle is cool! I'm not sure if we have those this far south (maybe in the Everglades). But we do have Burmese pythons that swallow gators! For real!!

That prior stuff I posted is not too unusual compared to some other stuff I've come across. Here's some REALLY crazy stuff I've seen in nature - some real unusual, but beautiful, growths:

This tree looks like it sprouted legs and is about to walk away!






















OK, if you haven't figured it out yet, with the exception of the first pic (the base of a type of palm tree that grows down here), these are not nature's creations. It was a Dale Chihuly blown glass show at a local gardens. Pretty amazing stuff. I just wish I had a better camera at the time. Here's some more for the heck of it now that my fun is over:

That was kinda cruel. I was feeling like a dumb ass for not being able to identify those plants. Thankfully you let us off the hook...

Nice lizard! Pet iguanas usually lose their spines from handling. Are you guys going to have an iguana hunt like the paranoid python hunt?

wow, thanks for the pics.

Chihuly is awesome. I've seen exhibits of his before, but I'd never seen him do anything like those tall sculptures, though; those really take the cake. Can you imagine trying to transport one of those monsters?

They're made of individual pieces and assembled on-site. Chihuly is generally loved or hated by Seattle folk. (Most other glass artists in Seattle don't particularly care for him - I learned glass blowing from people that worked for him and they didn't have anything good to say about him.) I can agree with both ends of the spectrum. Some of his work is stunning. But so much of it is just the same repetitive crap churned out by his factory workers. I seem to recall someone purchasing a Chihuly piece from a charity auction so that they could smash it!
But the Glass Museum in Tacoma is worth a visit regardless of your feelings towards him.

So it's like a Warhol sort of thing, where he sets it up and puts his name on it, but other people do the actual work? Interesting. I recall seeing a public TV doc on him years ago which didn't give that impression at all (but then again, why would he want to). At least Warhol was upfront about it. Still love the pieces, though, no matter how they were made.

Yup. He basically makes a drawing or painting like the one below and tells his worker bees to make it out of glass. So then a bunch of people spend countless hours making the same sort of pieces over and over again. Then Dale directs a bunch of people to put them together into the structures that make up his installations.
So it's kinda like Warhol. But I think Warhol was at least using the factory as a way to provoke thought as to what art is - Chihuly seems to use the factory because he can sit back and get paid rather than getting all sweaty putting in long hours in the hot shop. Or maybe he can't do it because he only has one eye...I dunno.

thats awesome. i just moved to fl, and im getting used to the many new creatures. i hate banana spiders! i saw a black widow and got to take a good picture of it, ill hafto find it. that was cool for me, it was like something out of a movie lol. i work in a concrete countertop shop and its just a bay and im constantly having to grab tiny frogs off the floor and set them back outside telling them they dont want to be in there : )

Awesome photos!

Whereabouts?


NT, I hear what you're saying about Chihuly. The only artist that really bugged me was Peter Max, with his mass production and hawking of their wares on the HSN or some other channel.

I guess you also have a special insight having worked in the industry. But whether he did these personally or just put his name on them, some were pretty impressive in person! And they were all for sale after the show (of course the price tags were pretty prohibitive, but considering that this show was in an extremely affluent area, I bet some sold).